Promoting Colorectal Cancer Screening in Public Health Outreach Campaigns

Abstract

Research on public outreach campaigns is presented. One study examines the effects of instruction design on adherence to cancer self-screening instructions. A second study examines the effect of persuasive announcements on increasing screening campaign participation. The first study examined adherence to screening (operationalized as returning results for evaluation) given standard instructions, or one of three other versions: persuasive, human factored, or a combination of the two.The second study investigated combining persuasion with a campaign announcement to increase participation (operationalized as picking up a test kit). The first study found that among first-time participants, the persuasive and human-factored instructions evoked higher result return rates than did the standard. The second study found that participation was significantly increased by adding persuasion to the campaign announcement. Enhancing motivation and reducing cognitive barriers increase adherence to test instructions and increase participation. These are simple, cost-effective strategies that increase adherence to cancer screening in public outreach campaigns,which may reduce cancer-specific mortality.