Clinical trial NCT04296630: Social Media for Colorectal Cancer Screening
Official title: Utilizing Social Media for Colorectal Cancer Screening: an Innovative Randomized Controlled Trial
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: ENROLLING_BY_INVITATION
Phase: NA
Conditions: Colorectal Cancer
Cancer Screening
Keywords: Social media
Ad campaigns
Lead sponsor: Unity Health Toronto
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
First posted: 2020-03-05
Enrollment: 56000
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 55
Maximum age (years): 64
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: Pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: Using social media for health promotion is an innovative and emerging approach but remains relatively unexplored in cancer screening. Uptake of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening remains low and standard methods of reaching out are expensive with limited impact. The objective of this study is to conduct a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test the effectiveness of social media messages for CRC screening on screening intention (primary outcome). The results of this trial will be of interest to Ontario Health and are likely to be taken up by other screening programs looking for innovative and novel ways to increase screening participation. The study results will be easily translatable identifying the most compelling CRC screening messages while the approach can easily be translated to other cancer disease sites with screening programs.

Detailed description: The investigators will conduct a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) in Facebook users (aged 50+) in Ontario. Randomization will be done at the level of the forward sortation area (FSA) - the first three characters of the postal code. All FSAs in Ontario will be randomized to one of six study arms - users assigned to each arm will receive one of the social media messages or no message (control). If users click on the message, a webpage with further information on screening will appear and participants will be asked to indicate intention to get screened for CRC. The primary outcome will be intention to screen and secondary outcomes will include other engagement metrics such as reach, cost-per-click, click-through rates, number of likes, number of impressions, and post comments.

This study will inform the feasibility of using social media for CRC screening and identify the most compelling CRC screening messages for the screen-eligible population.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Facebook users in Ontario who are between 55-64 years of age

Primary outcomes:
measure: Screening intention
timeFrame: From date of randomization to end of data collection (1 month)
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Cost-per-click
timeFrame: From date of randomization to end of data collection (1 month)
measure: Click-through-rate
timeFrame: From date of randomization to the end of data collection (1 month)
measure: Number of likes
timeFrame: At the end of the study period at 1 month
measure: Number of impressions
timeFrame: At the end of the study period at 1 month
measure: Post comments
timeFrame: At the end of the study period at 1 month
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Toronto
country: Canada
facility: Unity Health Toronto
state: Ontario
Study officials:
affiliation: Unity Health Toronto
name: Nancy N. Baxter, MD, FRCSC, FACS, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: