Encouraging bowel cancer screening in North East Lincolnshire
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Letters from GP practices to encourage bowel screening in North East Lincolnshire.
IRAS ID
250637
Contact name
Felicity Algate
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
North East Lincolnshire Council
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN94361793
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 2 months, 28 days
Research summary
This study aims to test whether it is possible to increase attendance rates for bowel cancer screening in the deprived area of East and West Marsh, Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire by sending a behaviourally-informed reminder letter from GP practices to non-attenders.
The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), North East Lincolnshire Council and North East Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group are collaborating on a project focused on encouraging bowel cancer screening in the deprived area with very low screening rates.
We are proposing to change the study design to a before/after study. Due to the straightforward nature of the intervention and the very low baseline rate we propose that a pre-post study is a sufficiently robust and appropriate evaluation methodology. We will conduct this study using a smaller number of GP practices than originally planned due to dropout. We currently have five practices that have committed to participate. We will send our reminder letter to everyone who was identified as a non-attender between 30 August 2018 and 30 August 2019. We will compare the attendance rates during the 9 weeks before we send the letter with the attendance rate 9 weeks after we send the letter.
REC name
East of Scotland Research Ethics Service REC 1
REC reference
18/ES/0141
Date of REC Opinion
26 Feb 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion