[SPONSORED CONTENT]
Cancer is changing. Once thought of as a disease of later life, it is increasingly a condition that impacts people in the prime of their careers.
The data is clear: cancer diagnoses in under-50s have risen by 79% in the last two decades. Concerningly, a survey we conducted with Censuswide showed that younger people are less likely than their older colleagues to recognise the risks.
Our Generation Risk report revealed a surprising gap in health awareness, both between men and women, and between younger people and older.
For example, only 34% of men aged 16–24 link sun and UV rays to cancer, while 31% make a link with smoking and only 25% with high alcohol consumption. These figures are significantly lower than older men and also women of all ages.
The survey also revealed that young men in particular are exposed to NHS information in various ways, including during healthcare appointments, brochures, email and texts, yet this information is clearly not getting through. It’s no wonder that 55% of employees believe employers have a responsibility to provide cancer education.
Most existing workplace programmes focus on treating illness, not preventing it and when cancer prevention does feature, it’s often centred solely around cancer screening.
Yet screening alone cannot reach the younger workforce. Two out of the three national screening programmes start at 50 or 55, missing the very cohort where incidence is rising fastest.
Habits and health behaviours are changing
Generational habits are reshaping how people engage with health. Younger adults are less likely to have a GP relationship, less likely to attend screening when invited and more likely to seek health advice online. This digital shift brings both opportunity and risk.
Studies show that around 40% of Gen Z turn to social media platforms for health and wellness information, almost twice the rate of older generations (22%). That makes social media nearly as common a source of information as doctors and health professionals (47%). However, a 2022 review of Facebook articles concerning cancer found that a third contained misinformation. Of these, more than three-quarters contained harmful information.
It’s clear that, while health information has never been more available, exposure to misinformation has also never been higher. This makes trusted, evidence-based education in the workplace more critical than ever. Organisations are one of the few places where reliable health information can reach younger adults consistently, credibly and in context.
Early detection is more than screening
At Perci Health, we define early detection as everything that happens before diagnosis. This extends far beyond screening. There are more than 200 types of cancer and fewer than ten have formal screening programmes.
It’s about understanding personal risk factors, symptom awareness and empowering people to seek help early, often long before a scan or test.
A broad early detection strategy helps people understand their personal and family risk, provides access to experts who can help optimise lifestyle factors, and access genetic counselling when appropriate. It also builds health literacy, enabling employees to know their normal, recognise symptoms, trust their instincts when something does not feel right. When low health literacy has been proven to be associated with poorer cancer survival and higher mortality across 12 cancer types, this is vital.
Effective education can also help people advocate for themselves, seek rapid support from GPs or specialists, ask the right questions and push for further investigation when symptoms are unexplained. At the point at which screening is available, effective education increases the confidence to participate in screening and navigate the often complex routes to diagnosis.
Employers have a unique role to play here. With access to younger demographics and a duty of care that extends beyond the office, they can create conditions where prevention feels relevant, credible and actionable.
Meeting younger employees where they are
We know it can be difficult to make health information feel relevant to a younger audience who feel fit and well. Yet this generation cares deeply about feeling well, performing well, and living well. The challenge is that they rarely see cancer prevention as connected to those goals.
It’s time to rebrand cancer prevention – by linking risk education to the topics that resonate most: gut health, energy, skin health, performance and fertility. Employers have a powerful opportunity to make prevention part of a broader, positive wellbeing conversation rather than a fear-based one.
Download Health & Protection’s Cancer care in the workplace roundtable supplement in association with Perci Health by following this link.
