Impact of a mass media campaign on participation in the Australian bowel cancer screening program

Abstract

Objective: To examine the effect of a mass media campaign designed to increase bowel cancer screening participation. Methods: We assessed weekly participation, from January 2015 to December 2017, in the Australian National Bowel Cancer Screening Program in Victoria, where a seven-week campaign aired in mid-2017, and in the adjacent comparison state of South Australia. Participation, defined as the number of immunochemical faecal occult blood tests returned out of those invited by the Screening Program in the past 16 weeks, was analysed using negative binomial regression. Results: Compared with non-campaign weeks, there was an increase in the return rate in the campaign state during campaign ..