NDLI: Young people’s perspectives of thyroid cancer screening and its harms after the nuclear accident in Fukushima Prefecture: a questionnaire survey indicating opt-out screening strategy of the thyroid examination as an ethical issue

Content Provider	Springer Nature : BioMed Central
Author	Midorikawa, Sanae Ohtsuru, Akira
Abstract	Background Overdiagnosis of thyroid cancer has become a major global medical issue. Ultrasound-based thyroid cancer screening has promoted overdiagnosis, and recently international recommendations state that it should not be conducted, even after a nuclear accident. The Fukushima thyroid cancer screening program was initiated in 2011 as a health policy after the nuclear accident. The risk of radiation-induced thyroid cancer was unlikely given the low radiation levels, but the thyroid cancer screening program has continued at 2-year intervals with a relatively high participation rate and is now in its fifth round. It is therefore crucial to clarify whether those targeted for screening understand the disadvantages of screening, and to identify factors that influenced their decision to participate. Methods We conducted an anonymous mail-based questionnaire among young people from Fukushima Prefecture (subjects) and a neighboring prefecture that was not targeted for screening (non-subjects). We asked them about the significance of the thyroid cancer screening in Fukushima Prefecture, their reasons for accepting or refusing screening, their perception of the harms of screening, and their opinions on thyroid examination at school. We compared the results of the questionnaire between subjects and non-subjects and between examinees (who were screened) and non-examinees (who declined screening). Results Only 16.5% of respondents were aware of the harms associated with thyroid cancer screening, with most perceiving that the benefits outweighed the harms. Comparison of subjects’ and non-subjects’ responses showed there were no significant differences between the two groups. Among subjects, there were also no differences in responses between examinees and non-examinees. The most common reason for participation in screening was that the screening was conducted in schools and perceived as obligatory. Conclusions These results highlighted a serious ethical issue in that school-based screening leads to making young people think that it is mandatory screening in an opt-out and default setting manner, with a lack of knowledge about the disadvantages of screening. Based on the autonomy of the subjects and the ethical principle of the post-disaster, surveys after a nuclear disaster should be conducted in an opt-in style without an opt-out style such as school-based screening.
Related Links	https://bmccancer.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12885-022-09341-6.pdf
Ending Page	10
Page Count	10
Starting Page	1
File Format	HTM / HTML
ISSN	14712407
DOI	10.1186/s12885-022-09341-6
Journal	BMC Cancer
Issue Number	1
Volume Number	22
Language	English
Publisher	BioMed Central
Publisher Date	2022-03-03
Access Restriction	Open
Subject Keyword	Cancer Research Oncology Surgical Oncology Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Biomedicine Medicine Public Health Overdiagnosis Thyroid cancer Decision-making Screening Nuclear accident Medicine/Public Health
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Cancer Research Oncology Genetics
Journal Impact Factor	3.4/2023
5-Year Journal Impact Factor	3.8/2023

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

A qualitative study of women’s views on overdiagnosis and screening for thyroid cancer in Korea

Evaluation of health benefits and harms of the breast cancer screening programme in the Basque Country using discrete event simulation

Patients’ experiences of diagnosis and management of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma: a qualitative study

Thyroid cancer overdiagnosis and overtreatment: a cross- sectional study at a thyroid cancer referral center in Ecuador

Overdiagnosis of breast cancer in the Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening Program estimated by the Norwegian Women and Cancer cohort study

Framing overdiagnosis in breast screening: a qualitative study with Australian experts

Thyroid fine-needle aspiration biopsy positively correlates with increased diagnosis of thyroid cancer in South Korean patients

Income differences in screening, incidence, postoperative complications, and mortality of thyroid cancer in South Korea: a national population-based time trend study

Incidence of thyroid cancer in Puerto Rico and the US by racial/ethnic group, 2011–2015

Young people’s perspectives of thyroid cancer screening and its harms after the nuclear accident in Fukushima Prefecture: a questionnaire survey indicating opt-out screening strategy of the thyroid examination as an ethical issue

Similar Documents

A qualitative study of women’s views on overdiagnosis and screening for thyroid cancer in Korea

Evaluation of health benefits and harms of the breast cancer screening programme in the Basque Country using discrete event simulation

Patients’ experiences of diagnosis and management of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma: a qualitative study

Thyroid cancer overdiagnosis and overtreatment: a cross- sectional study at a thyroid cancer referral center in Ecuador

Overdiagnosis of breast cancer in the Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening Program estimated by the Norwegian Women and Cancer cohort study

Framing overdiagnosis in breast screening: a qualitative study with Australian experts

Thyroid fine-needle aspiration biopsy positively correlates with increased diagnosis of thyroid cancer in South Korean patients

Income differences in screening, incidence, postoperative complications, and mortality of thyroid cancer in South Korea: a national population-based time trend study

Incidence of thyroid cancer in Puerto Rico and the US by racial/ethnic group, 2011–2015

Young people’s perspectives of thyroid cancer screening and its harms after the nuclear accident in Fukushima Prefecture: a questionnaire survey indicating opt-out screening strategy of the thyroid examination as an ethical issue