Aims
Population-wide cancer screening programs save lives through early cancer detection; however, many people do not participate. We aimed to understand decision formation and prompts to action for screening behaviours to inform interventions to increase bowel, breast, and cervical cancer screening uptake.
Methods
Cancer screeners (N = 962) were asked what made them decide to screen and what prompted them to act through an online survey. Content analysis was used to capture the frequency of common responses. Interrater reliability was high (κ = .96, %agree = 97%).
Results
For breast and cervical screening, decisions were commonly based on ‘screening being routine’ (32.58% - breast, 35.19% - cervical) or ‘receiving a reminder’ (20.53% - breast, 13.07% - cervical), and common prompts were ‘receiving a reminder’ (40.68% - breast, 29.13% - cervical), ‘screening being routine’ (22.05% breast, 18.65% cervical). Participants reported deciding to screen for bowel cancer due to ‘arrival of home screening test kit’ (40.50%) or the ‘experience of loved one’s cancer’ (13.57%) and were prompted by ‘arrival of home test kit’ (23.58%), ‘convenience’ (15.72%), and the ‘desire to “get it over with”’ (10.22%). Importantly, approximately 25% of participants gave the same response to both the decision and prompt question.
Conclusions
Interventions should target reminders and messages that support screening as part of regular healthcare routine, particularly for breast and cervical cancer screening. For bowel cancer screening, messaging should encourage immediate use of bowel cancer screening kits upon arrival. The messaging inviting individuals to screening programs should be carefully considered, as it often coincides with both the decision to participate and prompts action.