Cancer Research UK have produced guidance about inequalities in access to bowel cancer screening, common barriers to participation, and a tool to help you assess interventions for improving informed uptake.

When looking for ways to support informed bowel screening uptake, it's important to understand who is not engaging with the programme and the barriers that prevent them. Evidence shows some of the common barriers. These include:

• Fear and denial around the test outcome
• A misconception that the test is for people with symptoms of bowel cancer
• Concerns around the practicalities and cleanliness of the test 
• Low individual risk perception or limited consideration of future consequences of bowel cancer
• Forgetting to complete the test
• Difficulty accessing information on the test or bowel cancer due to low health literacy or language barriers