The Barriers and Facilitators of Gastric Cancer Screening: a Systematic Review

Aim Gastric cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death and the fifth most common cancer worldwide. Screening is one of the most important ways to increase survival. The aim of this systematic review was to determinate barriers and facilitators for accessing gastric cancer screening. Materials and Methods In this systematic review, for identifying barriers and facilitators of gastric cancer screening, a comprehensive search was conducted in electronic databases such as PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus in 2021. Combination keywords such as gastric cancer, screening, endoscopy, barriers, and facilitators were used for searching. Full text original studies in English language that are dealing with barriers and facilitators for accessing gastric cancer screening were included in this review. Results A total 13 articles included in this review. Ten barriers and ten facilitators were evaluated. The most common reported barriers were lack of signs, fear of screening procedure, fear of screening outcome, cost of screening, and embarrassment. The most frequent facilitator was socio demographic factors such as age, education, and employment. Conclusion For promoting success in gastric cancer, screening programs, knowing barriers, and facilitators is necessary. No signs and symptoms of disease have been shown as the major barriers toward gastric cancer screening in most studies.

Automated summary

This study aimed to explore the barriers and facilitators of gastric cancer screening, revealing that the major barriers include lack of signs, fear of the screening process and results, screening costs, and embarrassment, while the primary facilitators are related to sociodemographic factors.