The value of an advance notification letter prior to a postal offer of bowel cancer screening on population participation in screening.

Status

Active, not recruiting

Phases

Phase 3

Study type

Interventional

Source

ANZCTR

Registry ID

ACTRN12605000239662

Enrollment

1200

Registered

2005-08-31

Start date

2005-01-01

Completion date

Unknown

Last updated

2020-01-13

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

None listed

Brief summary

Improved participation in screening for bowel cancer is desirable. Currently population scale bowel cancer screening program delivery is by mailed offer, without prior warning, from a central screening service and invitations include a occult blood kit. Invitees may reject this process as they are unprepared to receive such an offer. One approach is to improve communication between screening providers and invitees through improved population scale interpersonal contact. We have developed a preliminary letter to precede an postal invitation to bowel cancer screening. The letter simply informs invitees that they will soon receive a screening invitation and provides them with some basic information about bowel cancer screening. We will randomly select invitees from the electoral roll and compare population screening participation between groups with or without the preliminary letter to determine which program results in the greater participation rate. Improved participation in screening will ultimately reduce deaths from bowel cancer

Interventions

A bowel cancer screening program that incorporates a preliminary letter to notify an invitee that they will be shortly sent an invitation to participate.

Study design

Allocation

Randomised controlled trial

Intervention model

Parallel

Primary purpose

Prevention

Masking

Blinded (masking used)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

All

Age

50 Years to 74 Years

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

Present on the electoral roll of the Australian Electoral Commission, who reside in one of a set of defined postcodes adjacent to Flinders Medical Centre or Repatriation General Hospital Daw Park.

Exclusion criteria

People already participating in bowel cancer screening research and service programs coordinated from the Bowel Health Service, Repartiation General Hospital Daw Park.Self exclusion by invitees - people who have specific heart and lung conditions that would preclude them from diagnostic and surgical follow-up following a positive screening test. All people who have specific medical conditions that would invalidate the screening test results. All people who have had a colonoscopy or stool screening test within the last year.

Outcome results