A systematic review of patient acceptance of screening for oral cancer outside of dental care settings

SummaryThis systematic review summarised the literature on patient acceptability of screening for oral cancer outside dental care settings. A comprehensive search of relevant literature was performed in EMBASE, MEDLINE, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, CINAHAL, psycINFO, CANCERLIT and BNI to identify relevant articles published between 1975 and Dec 2013. Studies reporting acceptability of oral cancer screening to undiagnosed individuals attending non-dental settings were eligible for inclusion. A total of 2935 references were initially identified from the computerised search but 2217 were excluded after screening the titles. From the abstracts of the remaining 178 articles, 47 full text articles were retrieved for further scrutiny, and 12 studies were found to be eligible for inclusion. In these studies, knowledge about oral cancer, anxiety related to the screening process, preference for care provision, and financial cost were influencing factors for the acceptance of screening. Written information provided to patients in primary care was reported to boost immediate knowledge levels of oral cancer, lessen anxiety, and increase intentions for screening. The majority of screening methods were entirely acceptable to patients; lack of acceptability from the patients’ viewpoint was not a significant barrier to carrying out opportunistic screening of high-risk populations. In conclusion, the available evidence suggests that acceptance of, and satisfaction with oral cancer screening is high, particularly where patients have previously been educated about oral cancer. Further research focusing on patient’s preferences would enable streamlining of the approach to oral cancer screening taken by any national programme.