AgingResearch.NewsJoin free
Journal of General Internal Medicine

Lung cancer screening in veterans took over two years to recover

Annual screening fell from 7.3% in January 2020 to 5.7%, recovered by March 2022 and reached 11% in June 2023.

Paper by Caroline Korves, Jeremy Smith, Nabin Neupane, +7 more authorsLouise Davies
Figure 1 from Journal of General Internal Medicine
Open the figure at full size
Figure 1. Korves et al.

Our read

Populations
Studied:
Cohort study of 1,867,387 screening-eligible veterans using Veterans Affairs healthcare
What changed:
Annual lung cancer screening took over 2 years to recover after falling from 7.3% to 5.7%
The catch:
Other changes in healthcare use could explain differences attributed to the pandemic
In the record:
The 222nd paper on COVID-19 pandemic with results in people; 311 on record in all.
Why it’s aging research:
It bears on staying healthy in midlife and later life.

Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News

Paper
Follow @agingbrief

Among 1,867,387 US veterans eligible for lung cancer screening in the Veterans Affairs healthcare system, a cohort study compared screening before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers examined January 2017 through June 2023, defining the pandemic period as March 2020 onward.

Annual screening fell from 7.3% in January 2020 to 5.7%. It returned to pre-pandemic rates by March 2022 and reached 11% in June 2023. Among eligible veterans who did not participate in screening, median tumor size at diagnosis fell from 20 to 18 millimeters after the pandemic began. Among screening participants, it remained at 15 millimeters. Across Veterans Affairs users, regardless of screening eligibility, lung cancer diagnosis rates were lower than expected from pre-pandemic trends.

Why it matters

For older adults, the authors suggested that the diagnosis patterns may reflect deaths brought forward by the pandemic.

Caveats

Comparisons with pre-pandemic trends could not separate pandemic effects from other changes in healthcare use over the same period. The findings describe Veterans Affairs healthcare users, not the broader US population.

Where the evidence stands

Lung cancer screening

Humans: a single group. Cells, worms or flies and mice: nothing yet.

C, W, M, H: cells, worms or flies, mice, humans. Dark: independent labs found the same change there. Light: one lab or one study. Outline: nothing yet.

Labs are independent when their papers share no last author and no institution.

Against: findings that point the other way from most findings on the same outcome.

Company ties: findings with an author at a company, or from a paper whose competing-interests statement declares ties to one.

  • 8 independent labs in 2 countries
  • 1 finding against
  • Funders: National Cancer Institute and others
  • 1 of 13 findings with company ties

COVID-19 pandemic

Humans: replicated by independent labs. Cells, worms or flies and mice: nothing yet.

C, W, M, H: cells, worms or flies, mice, humans. Dark: independent labs found the same change there. Light: one lab or one study. Outline: nothing yet.

Labs are independent when their papers share no last author and no institution.

Against: findings that point the other way from most findings on the same outcome.

Company ties: findings with an author at a company, or from a paper whose competing-interests statement declares ties to one.

  • 174 independent labs in 40 countries
  • 20 findings against
  • Funders: National Institutes of Health and others
  • 20 of 372 findings with company ties

Comments

Be the first to comment.

More on Lung cancer