Find Cancer Early: Evaluation of a community education campaign to increase awareness of cancer signs and symptoms in people in regional Western Australians

Croager, Gray, Pratt, Slevin, Pettigrew, Holman, Bulsara and Emery. Introduction: Cancer outcomes for people living in rural and remote areas are worse than for those living in urban areas. Although access to and quality of cancer treatment are important determinants of outcomes, delayed presentatio...

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Main Authors: Croager, E., Gray, V., Pratt, Steve, Slevin, Terry, Pettigrew, Simone, D'arcy Holman, C., Bulsara, M., Emery, J.
Format: Journal Article
Published: 2018
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/67889
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author Croager, E.
Gray, V.
Pratt, Steve
Slevin, Terry
Pettigrew, Simone
D'arcy Holman, C.
Bulsara, M.
Emery, J.
author_facet Croager, E.
Gray, V.
Pratt, Steve
Slevin, Terry
Pettigrew, Simone
D'arcy Holman, C.
Bulsara, M.
Emery, J.
author_sort Croager, E.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Croager, Gray, Pratt, Slevin, Pettigrew, Holman, Bulsara and Emery. Introduction: Cancer outcomes for people living in rural and remote areas are worse than for those living in urban areas. Although access to and quality of cancer treatment are important determinants of outcomes, delayed presentation has been observed in rural patients. Methods: Formative research with people from rural Western Australia (WA) led to the Find Cancer Early campaign. Find Cancer Early was delivered in three regions of WA, with two other regions acting as controls. Staffdelivered the campaign using a community engagement approach, including promotion in local media. Television communications were not used to minimize contamination in the control regions. The campaign evaluation was undertaken at 20 months via a computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) survey comparing campaign and control regions. The primary outcome variable was knowledge of cancer signs and symptoms. Results: Recognition and recall of Find Cancer Early and symptom knowledge were higher in the campaign regions. More than a quarter of those who were aware of the campaign reported seeing the GP as a result of their exposure. Conclusion: Despite limited use of ma ss media, Find Cancer Early successfully improved knowledge of cancer symptoms and possibly led to changes in behavior. Social marketing campaigns using community development can raise awareness and knowledge of a health issue in the absence of television advertising.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-678892018-09-27T23:58:18Z Find Cancer Early: Evaluation of a community education campaign to increase awareness of cancer signs and symptoms in people in regional Western Australians Croager, E. Gray, V. Pratt, Steve Slevin, Terry Pettigrew, Simone D'arcy Holman, C. Bulsara, M. Emery, J. Croager, Gray, Pratt, Slevin, Pettigrew, Holman, Bulsara and Emery. Introduction: Cancer outcomes for people living in rural and remote areas are worse than for those living in urban areas. Although access to and quality of cancer treatment are important determinants of outcomes, delayed presentation has been observed in rural patients. Methods: Formative research with people from rural Western Australia (WA) led to the Find Cancer Early campaign. Find Cancer Early was delivered in three regions of WA, with two other regions acting as controls. Staffdelivered the campaign using a community engagement approach, including promotion in local media. Television communications were not used to minimize contamination in the control regions. The campaign evaluation was undertaken at 20 months via a computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) survey comparing campaign and control regions. The primary outcome variable was knowledge of cancer signs and symptoms. Results: Recognition and recall of Find Cancer Early and symptom knowledge were higher in the campaign regions. More than a quarter of those who were aware of the campaign reported seeing the GP as a result of their exposure. Conclusion: Despite limited use of ma ss media, Find Cancer Early successfully improved knowledge of cancer symptoms and possibly led to changes in behavior. Social marketing campaigns using community development can raise awareness and knowledge of a health issue in the absence of television advertising. 2018 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/67889 10.3389/fpubh.2018.00022 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ fulltext
spellingShingle Croager, E.
Gray, V.
Pratt, Steve
Slevin, Terry
Pettigrew, Simone
D'arcy Holman, C.
Bulsara, M.
Emery, J.
Find Cancer Early: Evaluation of a community education campaign to increase awareness of cancer signs and symptoms in people in regional Western Australians
title Find Cancer Early: Evaluation of a community education campaign to increase awareness of cancer signs and symptoms in people in regional Western Australians
title_full Find Cancer Early: Evaluation of a community education campaign to increase awareness of cancer signs and symptoms in people in regional Western Australians
title_fullStr Find Cancer Early: Evaluation of a community education campaign to increase awareness of cancer signs and symptoms in people in regional Western Australians
title_full_unstemmed Find Cancer Early: Evaluation of a community education campaign to increase awareness of cancer signs and symptoms in people in regional Western Australians
title_short Find Cancer Early: Evaluation of a community education campaign to increase awareness of cancer signs and symptoms in people in regional Western Australians
title_sort find cancer early: evaluation of a community education campaign to increase awareness of cancer signs and symptoms in people in regional western australians
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/67889