Happy Birthday, let’s go get screened

It’s not such an odd gift, if you think about it. If you’re celebrating a birthday, why not increase your chances of seeing many more by using that time to go for check ups and cancer screening, particularly for colon cancer, prostate, skin, and breast cancer – although there are several more that are easily tested.

This isn’t just speculation. Researchers, who published their findings in a recent issue of BMJ.com, found that annual reminders around birthdays and Christmas did increase participation in screening programs. It was a large study, almost 30,000 participants. What the researchers found was interesting. People who were invited to a screening in the week of or after their birthday responded at a rate of 67.9% compared with those who had random invitations, who had a 64.5% rate. December invitations did even better: Those who received invitations in December responded at a rate of 72.3% compared with 64.2% of participants who had random invitations throughout the year.

What does this mean? If you’re responsible for helping arrange health appointments in  your family, and the person or people involved are less than willing to go for cancer screening, you’ll likely have better success getting them to attend if you schedule the appointment in December or around their birthday.

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