TY - JOUR
T1 - The SMARTscreen Trial
T2 - a randomised controlled trial investigating the efficacy of a GP-endorsed narrative SMS to increase participation in the Australian National Bowel Cancer Screening Program
AU - Wood, Anna
AU - Emery, Jon D.
AU - Jenkins, Mark
AU - Chondros, Patty
AU - Campbell, Tina
AU - Wenkart, Edweana
AU - O’Reilly, Clare
AU - Cowie, Tony
AU - Dixon, Ian
AU - Toner, Julie
AU - Khalajzadeh, Hourieh
AU - Gutierrez, Javiera Martinez
AU - Govan, Linda
AU - Buckle, Gemma
AU - McIntosh, Jennifer G.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge the following for their support and contribution to this trial. Participating general practice staff, especially practice managers and practice nurses who have supported and championed the trial in their general practice. The Western Victorian Primary Health Network (WVPHN), Cancer Council Victoria, the staff at Pen CS and Healthily, in particular, Lyle Innes, Neil Roberts and Matthias Merzenich. This trial is supported by the Primary Care Collaborative Cancer Clinical Trials Group (PC4).
Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge the following for their support and contribution to this trial. Participating general practice staff, especially practice managers and practice nurses who have supported and championed the trial in their general practice. The Western Victorian Primary Health Network (WVPHN), Cancer Council Victoria, the staff at Pen CS and Healthily, in particular, Lyle Innes, Neil Roberts and Matthias Merzenich. This trial is supported by the Primary Care Collaborative Cancer Clinical Trials Group (PC4).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/1/12
Y1 - 2022/1/12
N2 - Background: Increasing participation in the Australian National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (NBCSP) is the most efficient and cost-effective way of reducing mortality associated with colorectal cancer by detecting and treating early-stage disease. Currently, only 44% of Australians aged 50–74 years complete the NBCSP. This efficacy trial aims to test whether this SMS intervention is an effective method for increasing participation in the NBCSP. Furthermore, a process evaluation will explore the barriers and facilitators to sending the SMS from general practice. Methods: We will recruit 20 general practices in the western region of Victoria, Australia to participate in a cluster randomised controlled trial. General practices will be randomly allocated with a 1:1 ratio to either a control or intervention group. Established general practice software will be used to identify patients aged 50 to 60 years old who are due to receive a NBCSP kit in the next month. The SMS intervention includes GP endorsement and links to narrative messages about the benefits of and instructions on how to complete the NBCSP kit. It will be sent from intervention general practices to eligible patients prior to receiving the NBCSP kit. We require 1400 eligible patients to provide 80% power with a two-sided 5% significance level to detect a 10% increase in CRC screening participation in the intervention group compared to the control group. Our primary outcome is the difference in the proportion of eligible patients who completed a faecal occult blood test (FOBT) between the intervention and control group for up to 12 months after the SMS was sent, as recorded in their electronic medical record (EMR). A process evaluation using interview data collected from general practice staff (GP, practice managers, nurses) and patients will explore the feasibility and acceptability of sending and receiving a SMS to prompt completing a NBCSP kit. Discussion: This efficacy trial will provide initial trial evidence of the utility of an SMS narrative intervention to increase participation in the NBCSP. The results will inform decisions about the need for and design of a larger, multi-state trial of this SMS intervention to determine its cost-effectiveness and future implementation. Trial registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12620001020976. Registered on 17 October 2020.
AB - Background: Increasing participation in the Australian National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (NBCSP) is the most efficient and cost-effective way of reducing mortality associated with colorectal cancer by detecting and treating early-stage disease. Currently, only 44% of Australians aged 50–74 years complete the NBCSP. This efficacy trial aims to test whether this SMS intervention is an effective method for increasing participation in the NBCSP. Furthermore, a process evaluation will explore the barriers and facilitators to sending the SMS from general practice. Methods: We will recruit 20 general practices in the western region of Victoria, Australia to participate in a cluster randomised controlled trial. General practices will be randomly allocated with a 1:1 ratio to either a control or intervention group. Established general practice software will be used to identify patients aged 50 to 60 years old who are due to receive a NBCSP kit in the next month. The SMS intervention includes GP endorsement and links to narrative messages about the benefits of and instructions on how to complete the NBCSP kit. It will be sent from intervention general practices to eligible patients prior to receiving the NBCSP kit. We require 1400 eligible patients to provide 80% power with a two-sided 5% significance level to detect a 10% increase in CRC screening participation in the intervention group compared to the control group. Our primary outcome is the difference in the proportion of eligible patients who completed a faecal occult blood test (FOBT) between the intervention and control group for up to 12 months after the SMS was sent, as recorded in their electronic medical record (EMR). A process evaluation using interview data collected from general practice staff (GP, practice managers, nurses) and patients will explore the feasibility and acceptability of sending and receiving a SMS to prompt completing a NBCSP kit. Discussion: This efficacy trial will provide initial trial evidence of the utility of an SMS narrative intervention to increase participation in the NBCSP. The results will inform decisions about the need for and design of a larger, multi-state trial of this SMS intervention to determine its cost-effectiveness and future implementation. Trial registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12620001020976. Registered on 17 October 2020.
KW - Bowel cancer
KW - Colorectal cancer screening
KW - General practice
KW - Health promotion
KW - National Bowel Cancer Screening Program
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85122971412&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/s13063-021-05877-3
DO - 10.1186/s13063-021-05877-3
M3 - Article
C2 - 35022080
AN - SCOPUS:85122971412
VL - 23
JO - Trials
JF - Trials
SN - 1745-6215
IS - 1
M1 - 31
ER -
