Observational studyPreventive medicine2021
Measuring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on organized cancer screening and diagnostic follow-up care in Ontario, Canada: A provincial, population-based study.
Observational study in Preventive medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 97 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
97 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 151 citations in OpenAlex.
- The effect of healthcare disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic on colposcopy services and practice: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Acta obstetricia et gynecologica Scandinavica · 2025Pooled it
- Lung Cancer Screening Participation Among Indigenous Peoples Worldwide: A Systematic Review of Challenges and Opportunities.Health promotion journal of Australia : official journal of Australian Association of Health Promotion Professionals · 2025Pooled it
- Breast cancer screening and early diagnosis in China: a systematic review and meta-analysis on 10.72 million women.BMC women's health · 2024Pooled it
- Pooled it
- A systematic review of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on breast cancer screening and diagnosis.Breast (Edinburgh, Scotland) · 2023Pooled it
- Prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer: A systematic review of the impact of COVID-19 on patient care.Preventive medicine · 2022Pooled it
- The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening: A Systematic Review.In vivo (Athens, Greece)Pooled it
- Results from the BETTER WISE trial: a pragmatic cluster two arm parallel randomized controlled trial for primary prevention and screening in primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic.BMC primary care · 2023Trial
- Breast Cancer Surgery Wait Times and COVID-19: A Canadian Population-Based Analysis.Annals of surgical oncology · 2026Article
- Article
- Toward Safer Diagnoses: A SEIPS-Based Narrative Review of Diagnostic Errors.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Learning from an Emerging Infection: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Reshaped Gastric Cancer Care.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Patients with Breast Cancer, Diagnostic Delays and Disease Progression: A Retrospective Study.Iranian journal of medical sciences · 2026Article
- Article
- COVID-19 impacts on the breast cancer care pathway among systemically marginalized communities in Ontario.Cancer causes & control : CCC · 2025Article
- Article
- Cervical and breast cancer screening outcomes among Métis people in Alberta, Canada.BMC women's health · 2025Article
- Initial and persistent changes in cancer screening in a US Midwestern community health center network following the onset of COVID-19.Preventive medicine reports · 2025Article
- Exploring barriers and enablers to implementation of cancer screening among primary care professionals seeing marginalized patients.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Article
37 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
15 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
It is essential to quantify the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer screening, including for vulnerable sub-populations, to inform the development of evidence-based, targeted pandemic recovery strategies. We undertook a population-based retrospective observational study in Ontario, Canada to assess the impact of the pandemic on organized cancer screening and diagnostic services, and assess whether patterns of cancer screening service use and diagnostic delay differ across population sub-groups during the pandemic. Provincial health databases were used to identify age-eligible individuals who participated in one or more of Ontario's breast, cervical, colorectal, and lung cancer screening programs from January 1, 2019-December 31, 2020. Ontario's screening programs delivered 951,000 (-41%) fewer screening tests in 2020 than in 2019 and volumes for most programs remained more than 20% below historical levels by the end of 2020. A smaller percentage of cervical screening participants were older (50-59 and 60-69 years) during the pandemic when compared with 2019. Individuals in the oldest age groups and in lower-income neighborhoods were significantly more likely to experience diagnostic delay following an abnormal breast, cervical, or colorectal cancer screening test during the pandemic, and individuals with a high probability of living on a First Nation reserve were significantly more likely to experience diagnostic delay following an abnormal fecal test. Ongoing monitoring and management of backlogs must continue. Further evaluation is required to identify populations for whom access to cancer screening and diagnostic care has been disproportionately impacted and quantify impacts of these service disruptions on cancer incidence, stage, and mortality. This information is critical to pandemic recovery efforts that are aimed at achieving equitable and timely access to cancer screening-related care.
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