What factors influence General Practitioners’ participation in the colorectal cancer screening programme, and what can be done to increase uptake? Protocol for a mixed methods study.

Jelena Danilenko, Michael Harris

Keywords: General practitioners, Faecal immunochemical test, Colorectal cancer screening, Early detection of cancer.

Background:

Colorectal cancer (CRC), the third commonest cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death worldwide, is an attractive target for population screening. The faecal immunochemical test (FIT) has become widely used in CRC screening.
FIT was launched in Latvia in October 2019, taking over from the guaiac test, with General Practitioners (GPs) having to distribute it. Population uptake, although increasing, is poor (25% in 2023), and well below the 45% target recommended in the European guidelines. Research has shown that mailing patients a FIT gives a higher uptake than encouraging patients to collect them from their GPs.

Research questions:

What factors influence GPs’ participation in the colorectal cancer screening programme, and what are their views on how the uptake can be increased?

Method:

A mixed methods, cross-sectional study, using an online questionnaire for data collection. This will include multiple-choice questions, Likert-scale questions, and open-ended questions asking respondents to share their views on colorectal cancer screening
The study will take place in Latvia, through email distribution of the anonymous questionnaire to all GPs belonging to the organisation of family doctors. We will invite researchers from other European countries to collaborate by collecting data in their own countries.

Results:

We will present the study protocol and the results of the pilot study.

Conclusions:

Knowledge of the factors that influence family doctors’ participation in CRC screening will help us to create strategies to increase uptake.

Points for discussion:

How do you think the uptake of colorectal cancer screening in your country could be improved?

Or, if there is already good uptake in your country, what do you think makes it so successful?

If this research would be useful in your country, are you be interested in collaborating with us?

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