Effectiveness of a Web-based Intervention to Promote Health Screening in Men

Mass Screening, Preventive Health Services

men's health, internet, telemedicine, mass screening, health behavior

Health screening is proven to be effective in reducing morbidity, death and healthcare cost. However, the uptake of health screening is low particularly in men. In the earlier phase of this project, a web-based intervention (ScreenMen) to increase health screening uptake in men was developed based on theories, evidence and user needs. It was tested with experts and users for its utility and usability. In this phase, a randomised controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of ScreenMen in improving health screening knowledge & uptake in men. Healthy men, who have not gone for screening in the past 1 year will be recruited via Facebook to participate in this RCT. The participants will be randomised to receive or not to receive ScreenMen. Knowledge and intention to screen will be measured immediately post-intervention. All participants will be followed up at 1 month and 3 months to measure knowledge, intention and actual uptake of screening.

The uptake of health screening is low in Malaysia, particularly in men. There is a need to increase health screening uptake in men as this will not just save healthcare cost and increase national productivity in the long run but also improve the quality of life of men and their family. There were many interventions to increase health screening uptake in men which have been identified in the systematic review conducted in the earlier phase of this study. However, there is a lack of ICT-based intervention promoting health screening. The few existing ICT based interventions only focus on screening on a specific disease such as HIV or prostate cancer.(1-3) There was no ICT-based intervention which aimed to increase the uptake of comprehensive health screening. Studies have shown that ICT-based interventions are effective in improving health behaviour.(4) On top of that, there is a high number of internet accessibility and smartphone ownership in Malaysia, which provides a good platform to promote health screening in men. Thus, ScreenMen, a web-based intervention was developed based on theories, evidence and users' needs. It was tested with experts and users in terms of its utility and usability. (5-7) To the best of our knowledge, ScreenMen is the first mobile-responsive web-based intervention that promotes comprehensive evidence-based health screening in men. It aims to educate men about screening and empowers them to take charge of their health including undergoing regular health screening. Apart from encouraging health screening, ScreenMen provides advice to men about the recommended health screening they should undergo based on their health risks and educates them to avoid non-evidence-based screening. Before being launched to the public, a randomised controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of ScreenMen in improving knowledge on screening, intention to screen and the actual uptake of screening. Process evaluation will also be conducted to identify the components that work in improving health screening uptake and resolve any implementation issues of ScreenMen.

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Malaysia