Material
cancer, colorectal cancer, CRC, non-communicable life-threatening disease
DISEASE, CANCER, COLORECTAL CANCER
The authors created an invitational pamphlet (four A5 sheets with a total of 606 words) in Danish that invited the receiver to attend a medical screening programme for a fictitious, non-communicable life-threatening disease named ‘cytoliosis’. It was anticipated that the threat of cancer would trigger particularly strong emotions in respondents, and thus lead to cancer-specific results. Therefore, cytoliosis was invented to eliminate any preconceptions and fears regarding cancer.The pamphlet for screening for cytoliosis was partially based on the Danish colorectal cancer (CRC) screening pamphlet, and cytoliosis shared the same incidence and mortality as CRC.Five other pamphlets were made based on the ‘neutral’ one (A). Each of these incorporated one of the categories of influences mentioned in the introduction. One pamphlet made use of relative risk reductions (B) to emphasize mortality reduction. A third pamphlet omitted harms and emphasized benefits (C). Pre-booked appointments (D) were introduced in a fourth pamphlet as an example of an opt-out system and the fifth pamphlet contained explicit recommendation for participation (E) from the Danish Health Agency and Danish Patient Society. A sixth pamphlet used fear appeals (F), e.g. underlining the severity of the disease. Finally, a pamphlet combining all five influences (G) was made. See All the types of influence studied were inspired by actual examples from cancer screening programmes.One hundred pilot interviews were conducted to evaluate face validity, content validity and project feasibility and to develop an interview guide for the present study.