GP Reminders for Bowel Scope Screening non-participants
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Impact of GP endorsement on the effectiveness of a 12 months’ reminder to improve uptake of bowel scope screening: a randomised controlled trial in a hard-to-reach population.
IRAS ID
200928
Contact name
Christian von Wagner
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 3 months, 8 days
Research summary
Bowel cancer is a major public health concern in England, one accounting for one in every eight cancer incidences (12.5%) and one in every ten cancer deaths (9.8%). Bowel Scope Screening (BSS), also known as Flexible Sigmoidoscopy (FS) screening, helps prevent bowel cancer by locating and removing small, benign growths called ‘polyps’ from the bowel wall, before they can become cancerous. It is estimated that the introduction of BSS in England could save 3,000 lives per annum; however, the extent to which these benefits are realised is highly contingent on uptake, which, at present, is less than half the invited population. The benefits of increasing uptake are such that, over the lifetime of a screening cohort, spending up to £88 per person to increase the uptake of BSS from 54%, to 70%, would result in an overall cost saving. In the faecal occult blood test (FOBt) based screening programme for CRC, prevalence screening uptake (the proportion of the eligible population completing at least one screening episode) increases with each subsequent round of repeated invitation, from 55% at first invitation, to 63% following two rounds of biennial invitation. At present, no such repeat invitation process exists for the BSS programme, as participants cannot have the test more than once. In previous studies, we demonstrated that reminders prompting non-participants (specifically) were not only feasible, but effective as well. The present study aims to extend the evaluation of these reminders by testing the impact of adding a general practice endorsement to the letter – something which has been shown to be effective for other screening. The study will take place at the St Marks Hospital in London, between July & October 2016. At the end of the study, the data will be analysed and the results published in a peer reviewed journal.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/YH/0298
Date of REC Opinion
26 Jul 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion