More young people than ever are developing colorectal cancer. Take this quiz to check your risk level

An interactive quiz can reveal your risk for colon cancer – a disease that is quietly causing an epidemic among young people.

Cancer diagnoses, once considered a disease of old age, are now increasing among those under 55 and have doubled in the past 25 years. The age group now lags behind in every fifth case.

To make people aware of their risk, Fight Colorectal Cancer developed a 13-item questionnaire that assesses age, ethnicity, family history of cancer, activity level and obesity.

You can take the following quiz:

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Users are also asked whether a person’s diet is high in red or processed meat or low in fiber, grains and vegetables, and how much alcohol they drink.

Users are then assigned a “low,” “moderate,” or “high” risk of developing colon cancer, and are encouraged to be screened for the disease if they fall into the latter categories.

Dr. Fola May, a physician at the University of California, Los Angeles and a Fight Colorectal Cancer board member, said the quiz is appropriate for people of all ages.

She told Insider that people with a “low risk estimate” do not need to be screened for colon cancer until age 45.

But if a person’s mother, father or siblings have cancer, or if they receive a higher risk rating, they should consider being screened until they turn 40.

Colorectal cancer screening is called a colonoscopy. Here, doctors insert a short, thin, flexible tube into a person’s rectum to examine the lower third of the colon for polyps, or signs of cancer.

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Amid concerns about increasing cancer diagnoses among younger adults, American doctors currently recommend that everyone over 45 should be screened.

People should go every 10 years, the guidelines suggest, but those in their 60s who are at higher risk should have screenings every five years.

They previously recommended that people should not be screened for cancer before the age of 50.

Screening helps detect cancer at an early stage when it is much easier to treat.

Because colon cancer causes few or no symptoms in the early stages, many people may have the cancer without realizing it.

Early warning signs are blood in the stool, changing bowel habits, cold hands and feet, and abdominal pain.

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in both men and women after 100,000 cases and 52,000 deaths each year.

It is estimated that about 63 percent of people live more than five years after their diagnosis.

It is not clear what causes the cancer, but it is more likely to be linked to a diet high in red or processed meat, obesity and a family history of cancer.