Scotland has a high incidence of mouth cancer, but public awareness and knowledge are low compared with other cancers. The West of Scotland Cancer Awareness Project sought to increase public awareness and knowledge of mouth cancer and to encourage early detection of symptoms among an at-risk population of people aged over 40 years from lower socio-economic groups using a mass media approach. The media campaign aimed to increase people’s feelings of personal risk, while also enhancing feelings of efficacy and control. To achieve this, a testimonial approach (using real people to tell their own stories) was adopted

Brown, A

Eadie, D

MacAskill, S

MacKintosh, A M

English

PubMed

Eadie, Douglas

MacKintosh, Anne Marie

MacAskill, Susan

Brown, Abraham

Stirling Online Research Repository (RIOXX)

Development and evaluation of an early detection intervention for mouth cancer using a mass media approach

Stirling Online Research Repository

Background:

Scotland has a high incidence of mouth cancer, but public awareness and knowledge are low compared with other cancers. The West of Scotland Cancer Awareness Project sought to increase public awareness and knowledge of mouth cancer and to encourage early detection of symptoms among an at-risk population of people aged over 40 years from lower socio-economic groups using a mass media approach. The media campaign aimed to increase people's feelings of personal risk, while also enhancing feelings of efficacy and control. To achieve this, a testimonial approach (using real people to tell their own stories) was adopted.



Methods:

Campaign impact and reach was assessed using in-home interviews with a representative sample of the target population in both the campaign area and controls outside of the target area. Surveys were conducted at three stages: at baseline before the campaign was launched, and at 7 and 12 months thereafter.



Results:

Awareness of media coverage was higher at both follow-up points in the intervention area than in the control area, the differences largely being accounted for by television advertising. The campaign had a short-term, but not a long-term impact on awareness of the disease and intention to respond to the symptoms targeted by the campaign. Awareness of two of the symptoms featured in the campaign (ulcers and lumps) increased, post-campaign, among the intervention group.



Conclusions:

While the study provides evidence for the effectiveness of the self-referral model, further work is needed to assess its ability to build public capacity to respond appropriately to symptoms and to compare the cost-effectiveness of a mass media approach against alternative communication approaches and more conventional mass screening

Eadie, D.

MacKintosh, A. M.

MacAskill, S.

Northumbria Research Link

Health Promot Int 17: 51–60 Social Trends No.

Media use and the health information acquisition process: how callers learned about the NCI’s Cancer Information Service. Health Educ Res Theory Pract 4: 419–427 Bandura A

Mouth cancer risk perception among participants in an mouth cancer screening program. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 11: 155–158 Horowitz AM, Canto MT, Child WL (2002) Maryland adults’ perspectives on mouth cancer prevention and early detection.

Registrations of Cancer Diagnosed in

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2790695

Development and evaluation of an early detection intervention for mouth cancer using a mass media approach

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Stirling Online Research Repository

Northumbria Research Link