Fecal occult blood test is no longer recommended due to the high false-positive rate as well as the dietary and pharmaceutical restrictions.

[5][6] The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) issued an update to the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) for 2017, while the guideline remains for the patients aged 50 or over.

[9] Three-year multi-target stool DNA test has been estimated to cost $11,313 per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) compared with no screening.

[10] Parasitic diseases such as ascariasis, hookworm, strongyloidiasis and whipworm can be diagnosed by examining stools under a microscope for the presence of worm larvae or eggs.

[11] Other stool tests involve the detection of antibiotic resistance as to guide appropriate therapy, e.g. Clarithromycin resistance of Helicobacter pylori represents a major challenge in eradication therapy but the responsible bacterial genomic markers can be detected in stool using PCR technology and thus can guide the prescription of the appropriate antibiotics to specific patients.