Reviewer's report
Title:Colorectal cancer screening services in family medicine vs. internal
medicine practices: a cross-sectional study
Version: 2Date:18 January 2012
Reviewer: Montserrat Andreu
Reviewer's report:
The article by Higgins et al. describes lower rates of acceptance of cancer
screening by either FIBT or endoscopy in patients from family medicine
physicians compared to internal medicine physicians, based on data obtained
from Medicare.
The following points deserve consideration:
1. Information and conclusions of the study is only relevant for the health system
from which data was obtained, and cannot be generalized to other systems.
2. Reliability of the questionnaire on having been offered a CRC screening
methodology (FOBT or colonoscopy) has not been tested, and is potentially
exposed to considerable recall bias, which in its turn may be dependent on some
of the demographic factors analyzed (e.g. level of education, income).
3. As the authors acknowledge in the discussion, recommendation to undergo
sigmoidoscopy every 5 years is acceptable, but colonoscopy is recommended at
10 years interval.
Level of interest: An article of limited interest
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
Reviewer's report
Title:Colorectal cancer screening services in family medicine vs. internal
medicine practices: a cross-sectional study
Version: 2Date:18 January 2012
Reviewer: Montserrat Andreu
Reviewer's report:
The article by Higgins et al. describes lower rates of acceptance of cancer
screening by either FIBT or endoscopy in patients from family medicine
physicians compared to internal medicine physicians, based on data obtained
from Medicare.
The following points deserve consideration:
1. Information and conclusions of the study is only relevant for the health system
from which data was obtained, and cannot be generalized to other systems.
2. Reliability of the questionnaire on having been offered a CRC screening
methodology (FOBT or colonoscopy) has not been tested, and is potentially
exposed to considerable recall bias, which in its turn may be dependent on some
of the demographic factors analyzed (e.g. level of education, income).
3. As the authors acknowledge in the discussion, recommendation to undergo
sigmoidoscopy every 5 years is acceptable, but colonoscopy is recommended at
10 years interval.
Level of interest: An article of limited interest
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
Please review this paper.
user
Reviewer's report
Title:Colorectal cancer screening services in family medicine vs. internal
medicine practices: a cross-sectional study
Version: 2Date:18 January 2012
Reviewer: Montserrat Andreu
Reviewer's report:
The article by Higgins et al. describes lower rates of acceptance of cancer
screening by either FIBT or endoscopy in patients from family medicine
physicians compared to internal medicine physicians, based on data obtained
from Medicare.
The following points deserve consideration:
1. Information and conclusions of the study is only relevant for the health system
from which data was obtained, and cannot be generalized to other systems.
2. Reliability of the questionnaire on having been offered a CRC screening
methodology (FOBT or colonoscopy) has not been tested, and is potentially
exposed to considerable recall bias, which in its turn may be dependent on some
of the demographic factors analyzed (e.g. level of education, income).
3. As the authors acknowledge in the discussion, recommendation to undergo
sigmoidoscopy every 5 years is acceptable, but colonoscopy is recommended at
10 years interval.
Level of interest: An article of limited interest
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
assistant