Cancer Screening: Mass Media Targeting Clients — Colorectal Cancer

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Findings and Recommendations

The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) finds insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of mass media interventions in increasing screening for colorectal cancer because too few studies qualified for the review.

The full CPSTF Finding and Rationale Statement and supporting documents for Cancer Screening: Mass Media Targeting Clients — Colorectal Cancer are available in The Community Guide Collection on CDC Stacks.

Intervention

Mass media including television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and billboards communicate educational and motivational information about cancer screening. Mass media can be used alone but almost always include other components (e.g., client reminders) or capitalize on existing interventions and infrastructure. This review evaluated effectiveness of mass media when used alone or its unique contribution as part of a multicomponent intervention.

About The Systematic Review

The CPSTF finding is based on evidence from a systematic review published in 2008 (Baron et al., 0 studies, search period 1966-2004) combined with more recent evidence (1 study, search period 2004-2008).

Summary of Results

One study qualified for the systematic review. The study assessed the effect of higher- versus lower-intensity mass media as part of a multicomponent intervention.

  • Screening by FOBT: decreased 4.7 percentage points
  • Screening by protoscopy: decreased 8.0 percentage points

Summary of Economic Evidence

An economic review of this intervention was not conducted because CPSTF did not have enough information to determine if the intervention works.

Applicability

Applicability of this intervention across different settings and populations was not assessed because CPSTF did not have enough information to determine if the intervention works.

Evidence Gaps

The CPSTF identified several areas that have limited information. Additional research and evaluation could help answer the following questions and fill remaining gaps in the evidence base. (What are evidence gaps?)

The following outlines evidence gaps for client incentives to increase breast, cervical, or colorectal cancer screening.

  • What is the efficacy of Internet-delivered mass media campaigns and other mass approaches? Can the Internet be marshaled to create the impact of mass media at lower cost and with even greater reach?
  • What are the incremental effects of adding intervention components to other interventions?
  • What influence do newer methods of communication (e.g., the Internet, e-mail, social media, automated interactive voice response, texting) have on intervention effectiveness?
  • What is the influence of health system factors on intervention effectiveness?
  • Are interventions effective for promoting colorectal cancer screening with methods other than FOBT?
  • Are interventions to promote colorectal cancer screening equally effective when addressing colorectal cancer screening more generally, as when specific to one type of test?

Implementation Considerations and Resources

CPSTF did not have enough evidence to determine whether the intervention is or is not effective. This does not mean the intervention does not work, but rather that additional research is needed to determine whether or not the intervention is effective.

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