A national team based in Cambridge is celebrating ten years of helping people living with rare diseases transform their ideas into research. In that time, the hub has received nearly 100 ideas coverin...

Children growing up in British cities face barriers to safe, playable spaces as financial constraints, policy misalignment and housing pressures cause planners to prioritise property over parks, accor...

Many autistic people experience poor mental health. The results of past research into treatments for mental health problems might not apply to autistic people. For example, medication for mental healt...

About the event Endometriosis affects around 1 in 10 women and those assigned female at birth. It can cause severe pain, heavy periods, fatigue, and difficulties with fertility, yet it often takes yea...

A new study is investigating whether FAST MRI, a new type of scan, can help detect small but aggressive breast cancers earlier. Now open to patients, the

Colorectal cancer (CRC) screening is one of the main causes of death in high-income countries. In Japan, cancer screening programmes are delivered by different insurers, and these programmes are based mainly on communities and workplaces. Although several surveys have suggested participation rates are higher in workplace-based programmes, the experiences and views of participants and non-participants are poorly understood. We conducted a secondary qualitative analysis of transcripts from interviews with people who shared their experiences and/or views of employer-based CRC screenings. By using a qualitative database called DIPEx-Japan, we purposely selected participants who had been on social insurance which indicated they were eligible for workplace-based cancer screening. We excluded (i) individuals with a history of inflammatory colorectal diseases; (ii) individuals who stated that they had been exclusively on National Health Insurance; and (iii) individuals who did not mention workplace-based screening. We conducted a thematic analysis for the selected interviews. We selected 24 cases for analysis. The participants were encouraged to attend workplace-based CRC screening alongside other annual legislated health check-ups or by offering financial assistance to attend comprehensive general health check-ups in hospitals that also include screening by default. Two interviewees who had not attended workplace-based screening said that it was not provided as a mandatory option. The participants often lacked the information required to make an informed choice regarding their participation in workplace-based screening. Several interviewees who had not attended further examinations explained that they were not informed of the necessity or purpose of the screening. Follow-up strategies varied across employers. However, there was an indication that interviewees who had an established relationship with healthcare professionals expressed their willingness to take up further examinations if needed and continued to participate in screening after their retirement. Workplace-based cancer screening programmes may improve uptake of cancer screening because of their mandatory arrangements. However, better communication is needed to explain the risks and benefits of screening which will support their decisions to take up further examinations or encourage continuous participation in screening.

NHS hospitals are facing a shortage of nurses at a time when patients’ needs for care are increasing. To help address this, a new role called the Nursing Associate (NA) has been introduced. NAs work a...

Dr Kirsten Bell is a Senior Research Fellow in Anthropology at Imperial College’s Patient Experience Research Centre. She’s also a member of the BRC Qualitative Social and Behavioural Research Network...

Providing care for people living with dementia at home can be challenging. Stress, burnout, and frequent staff changes among care workers affects the quality of care. Research shows that matching care...

Early findings from a clinical trial in Cambridge suggest a combination of metformin, a diabetes drug, and clemastine, an antihistamine, can help repair myelin – the protective coating around nerves, ...

When researchers want to know whether something causes a health outcome, like whether a vitamin reduces the risk of heart disease, they often look at results from many different studies. This process,...

When people have heart surgery, some develop serious complications afterwards. Two of the most common are acute kidney injury (AKI) and atrial fibrillation (AF, an irregular heartbeat). Each can affec...

Join us for this free community event to raise awareness and improve education around the menopause