Feeling healthy is the main reason Latvians skip cancer screenings

Residents most often ignore invitations to state-funded cancer screenings because they feel healthy and have no symptoms, medical students found during a public outreach campaign, LSM reported.

Students from the University of Latvia spoke with residents at 15 supermarkets this month as part of the “Latvia, open the letter!” campaign. They said screening is intended for people without symptoms; when symptoms such as pain appear, the examination is diagnostic rather than preventive.

The students questioned 4,000 people in 10 Latvian cities. Another 1,175 people responded anonymously to questions about what prevents them from attending screenings. One in six respondents, or 16%, cited the absence of symptoms as the main obstacle.

Uptake varies by screening programme. Nearly 60% of women invited for cervical screening attended last year, while only about one in three people responded to invitations for bowel health checks.

Campaign organiser Aleksejs Meļkovs, a sixth-year medical student, and other students encouraged people to contact their family doctor and open all invitations, whether they arrive electronically or by post. Stella Lapiņa, deputy dean for medical studies at the university’s Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, said screening participation statistics in Latvia were unsatisfactory, though the situation was similar across much of Europe and elsewhere.