Disparities in Colorectal Cancer Screening Before and After the Onset of the COVID Pandemic.

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) screening is underutilized among those with lower socioeconomic status and in racial and ethnic minoritized populations who have been disproportionately impacted by COVID.

Objective: To compare disparities in CRC screening before and after the onset of the COVID pandemic among privately insured individuals.

Design: Retrospective cohort study using deidentified claims data from the USA between January 1, 2017, and December 31, 2022.

Participants: Blue Cross Blue Shield beneficiaries aged 50-75 years with average risk of CRC.

Main measure(s): Mean screening use was compared by demographic and area-level socioeconomic factors between the periods preceding (January 1, 2017 to February 28, 2020) and following (July 1, 2020 to December 31, 2022) the onset of the COVID pandemic. Difference-in-differences analysis was used to evaluate changes in screening differences.

Results: Our study included 21,724,223 beneficiaries. Compared to males, females had higher screening in both periods (p < 0.05), and this sex difference in screening increased 1.63% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.32%, 1.94%) following the onset of the pandemic. Compared to residents in areas with high socioeconomic status (SES), low SES area residents had lower screening (p < 0.001) during both periods. Furthermore, this difference grew 4.32% (95% CI, 3.76%, 4.88%) during the post-onset period. Metropolitan area residents had higher screening than non-metropolitan area residents during both periods (p < 0.001); however, this difference decreased 0.77% (95% CI, 0.34%, 1.20%) during the post-onset period. Among beneficiaries with high risk of CRC, the difference in screening based on social deprivation index and metropolitan area status increased 6.99% (95% CI, 5.77%, 8.20%) and 1.82% (95% CI, 0.88%, 2.74%), respectively.

Conclusions: Among privately insured individuals, CRC screening after the COVID pandemic recovered unevenly based on sex, area-level socioeconomic measures, and metropolitan area status, with pre-pandemic disparities persisting and even worsening for some of the factors.