UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Targeted encouragement of GP consultations for possible cancer symptoms: a randomised controlled trial

Laake, J-P; Vulkan, D; Quaife, SL; Hamilton, WT; Martins, T; Waller, J; Parmar, D; ... Duffy, SW; + view all (2021) Targeted encouragement of GP consultations for possible cancer symptoms: a randomised controlled trial. British Journal of General Practice , 71 (706) e339-e346. 10.3399/bjgp20X713489. Green open access

[thumbnail of Quaife_Targeted encouragement of GP consultations for possible cancer symptoms- a randomised controlled trial_VoR.pdf]
Preview
Text
Quaife_Targeted encouragement of GP consultations for possible cancer symptoms- a randomised controlled trial_VoR.pdf

Download (115kB) | Preview

Abstract

BACKGROUND: For some common cancers, survival is lower in the UK than in comparable high-income countries. AIM: To assess the effectiveness of a targeted postal intervention (to promote awareness of cancer symptoms and earlier help seeking) on patient consultation rates. DESIGN AND SETTING: A two-arm randomised controlled trial was carried out on patients aged 50-84 years registered at 23 general practices in rural and urban areas of Greater London, Greater Manchester, and the North East of England. METHOD: Patients who had not had a consultation at their general practice in the previous 12 months and had at least two other risk factors for late presentation with cancer were randomised to intervention and control arms. The intervention consisted of a posted letter and leaflet. Primary outcome was the number of consultations at the practice with patients randomised to each arm in the 6 months subsequent to posting the intervention. All patients with outcome data were included in the intention-to-treat analyses. RESULTS: In total, 1513 patients were individually randomised to the intervention (n = 783) and control (n = 730) arms between Nov 2016 - May 2017; outcome data were available for 749 and 705 patients, respectively, with a statistically significantly higher rate of consultation in the intervention arm compared with the control arm: 436 versus 335 consultations (relative risk 1.40, 95% confidence interval = 1.11 to 1.77, P = 0.004). There was, however, no difference in the numbers of patients consulting. CONCLUSION: Targeted interventions of this nature can change behaviour; there is a need to develop interventions that can be more effective at engaging patients with primary care. This study demonstrates that targeted interventions promoting both awareness of possible cancer symptoms and earlier health seeking, can change behaviour. There is a need to develop and test interventions that can be more effective at engaging the most at-risk patients.

Type: Article
Title: Targeted encouragement of GP consultations for possible cancer symptoms: a randomised controlled trial
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.3399/bjgp20X713489
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20X713489
Language: English
Additional information: © 2021 The Authors. This article is Open Access: CC BY 4.0 licence (http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/).
Keywords: cancer, diagnosis, general practice, health promotion, primary health care, randomized controlled trial
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Behavioural Science and Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Epidemiology and Public Health
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10118559
Downloads since deposit
37Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item