Social Media for Colorectal Cancer Screening

Unity Health Toronto

Status: Invitation-only

Conditions: Cancer Screening; Colorectal Cancer

Treatments: Other: Social media message #3; Other: Social Media Message #4; Other: Tailored Social Media Message; Other: Social media message #2; Other: Social media message #1

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04296630

20-005

Details and patient eligibility

About

Using social media for health promotion is an innovative and emerging approach but remains relatively unexplored in cancer screening. Uptake of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening remains low and standard methods of reaching out are expensive with limited impact. The objective of this study is to conduct a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test the effectiveness of social media messages for CRC screening on screening intention (primary outcome). The results of this trial will be of interest to Ontario Health and are likely to be taken up by other screening programs looking for innovative and novel ways to increase screening participation. The study results will be easily translatable identifying the most compelling CRC screening messages while the approach can easily be translated to other cancer disease sites with screening programs.

Full description

The investigators will conduct a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) in Facebook users (aged 50+) in Ontario. Randomization will be done at the level of the forward sortation area (FSA) - the first three characters of the postal code. All FSAs in Ontario will be randomized to one of six study arms - users assigned to each arm will receive one of the social media messages or no message (control). If users click on the message, a webpage with further information on screening will appear and participants will be asked to indicate intention to get screened for CRC. The primary outcome will be intention to screen and secondary outcomes will include other engagement metrics such as reach, cost-per-click, click-through rates, number of likes, number of impressions, and post comments.

This study will inform the feasibility of using social media for CRC screening and identify the most compelling CRC screening messages for the screen-eligible population.

Enrollment: 56,000 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 55 to 64 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• Facebook users in Ontario who are between 55-64 years of age

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Triple Blind

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56,000 participants in 6 patient groups

Message #1

Active Comparator group

Description:

This arm will receive one of five social media messages that is preferred by our target population through focus groups that are being conducted as part of a previous study.

Treatment:

Other: Social media message #1

Message #2

Active Comparator group

Description:

This arm will receive the second social media message that is preferred by our target population as identified from our previous focus group study.

Treatment:

Other: Social media message #2

Message #3

Active Comparator group

Description:

This arm will receive the third social media message that is preferred by our target population as identified from our previous focus group study.

Treatment:

Other: Social media message #3

Arm #4

Active Comparator group

Description:

This arm will receive the fourth social media message that is preferred by our target population as identified from our previous focus group study.

Treatment:

Other: Social Media Message #4

Tailored Arm

Active Comparator group

Description:

This arm will receive social media messages that will be tailored by sex.

Treatment:

Other: Tailored Social Media Message

Control Arm

No Intervention group

Description:

This arm will not receive any intervention.