Receipt of preventive services by elders based on composite measures, 1997-2004.

Background: The receipt of routine vaccinations and cancer screening is typically tracked separately. Monitoring trends in this way does not measure the overall protection conferred by these services on a target population.

Design: Telephone surveys were conducted in 1997, 2002, and 2004 as part of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.

Setting/participants: Randomly selected adults aged 65 and older from 49 states and Washington DC.

Main Outcome Measures: Statistically significant changes (p <0.05) in a composite measure of the prevalence of U.S. men aged 65 or older who were up to date with recommendations for colorectal cancer screening, influenza vaccination, pneumococcal vaccination; and for the prevalence of U.S. women aged 65 or older who were up to date for these measures as well as for Pap test and screening mammography.

Results: The percentage of men who reported being up to date on all tests increased from 24.4% (1997) to 39.6% (2002) to 41.0% (2004), and the percentage of women increased from 18.6% (1997) to 32.4% (2002) to 32.5% (2004). For both groups, results varied by education, race/ethnicity, marital status, insurance status, and state, as well as whether they had a personal doctor.

Conclusions: Despite increases between 1997 and 2004 in the reported receipt of individual cancer screenings and vaccinations among U.S. adults aged 65 or older, approximately seven of ten women and six of ten men were not up to date on these routine preventive services in 2004.