What is known?
Australia has one of the highest rates of bowel cancer in the world. The National Bowel Cancer Screening Program sends out home bowel cancer screening test kit to people between 50 and 74 years old. However, participation in the program is low, especially in the 50- to 60-year-old age group, where only 31- 36% of invitees participate in the program. A previous trial called ‘SMARTscreen’ showed that sending people an SMS with motivational and instructional videos from their GP Practice before they receive their test kit increased participation by 16.5%.
What is new?
Now, a new trial called ‘SMARTERscreen’ is being conducted to see if sending either an SMS alone or an SMS with a link to online videos to patients from their GP before they get their test kit can increase participation in the Program. This trial will involve 63 GP Practices in two states in Australia, and eligible patients are those aged 49 to 60 who are about to receive their test kit. Some patients will get an SMS with a message to encourage them, and others will get the same SMS with links to motivational and instructional videos. A third group will receive the usual care.
What does this mean?
This study, ‘SMARTERscreen,’ will give us important information about whether sending text messages or text messages with online videos from GPs can encourage more people to participate in the bowel cancer screening program. By doing this, we can improve the rates of early detection of bowel cancer and potentially save lives. The results of this study will also be used to figure out if these interventions are cost-effective in the long run.
Contact: Belinda Goodwin
Reference:McIntosh, J., Emery, J., Wood, A., Chondros, P., Goodwin, B. C., Trevena, J., … & Jenkins, M. A. (2023). SMARTERscreen protocol: A three-arm cluster randomised controlled trial of patient SMS messaging in general practice to increase participation in the Australian National Bowel Cancer Screening Program.