Clinical trial NCT06972667: Interventions to Decrease Health Information Avoidance
Official title: Interventions to Decrease Cancer Information Avoidance
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Health Information Avoidance
Keywords: colorectal cancer screening
information avoidance
RCT
screening intentions
video
Lead sponsor: State University of New York at Buffalo
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: National Cancer Institute (NCI)
First posted: 2025-05-15
Enrollment: 1500
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 45
Maximum age (years): 75
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: The study will be a randomized controlled trial. Participants (N=1,500), half of whom will be selected because they tend to avoid colorectal cancer information, will be randomized to treatment groups using a stratified permuted block randomization scheme to ensure equal proportion of avoiders across videos.
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: Health information avoidance is an overlooked threat to the reach and effectiveness of health communication. To fully realize the benefits of our sizeable investments in health messaging, it is necessary to identify strategies for reducing health information avoidance. The researchers will test a video-based strategy for promoting colorectal cancer screening designed to reduce defensive colorectal cancer information avoidance and increase message reach by increasing engagement among those who would otherwise avoid the message. The researchers will conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) comparing the effects of the intervention video to an attentional control video on colorectal cancer screening intentions and uptake.

Detailed description: The study will test the efficacy and mediating mechanisms of brief video interventions including elements demonstrated to be effective in reducing health information avoidance (self-efficacy boosting, humor, calm affect induction). It is expected that the videos to benefit people who typically avoid health information yet still be beneficial for people who do not avoid health information, thus being suitable for dissemination to general audiences. It is hypothesized that the interventions will strengthen intentions to be screened, increase colorectal cancer risk information seeking and increase screening.

Following recommended practices, the two intervention arms and the control arm will include multiple versions of the videos to control for actor effects. All intervention videos operationalize the same psychological mechanisms but are delivered by 4 different actors and promote either colonoscopy or stool tests. The 8 parallel intervention and 4 control videos will be treated as random effects.

The intervention videos will be tested in members of the Ipsos panel who are not adherent to colorectal cancer screening guidelines, half of whom will be selected because they tend to avoid colorectal cancer information. Effects of the intervention videos will be compared to those of an attentional control video about food safety.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* between the ages of 45 and 75 years
* never diagnosed with colorectal cancer
* non-adherent to colorectal cancer screening guidelines
* half will have a score at or greater than the mid-point on the colorectal cancer information avoidance scale (≥2.5) on the pre-screening survey such that half of the sample are people who tend to avoid colorectal cancer information

Exclusion Criteria:

* not between the ages of 45 and 75 years
* have been diagnosed with colorectal cancer
* adherent to colorectal cancer screening guidelines

Primary outcomes:
measure: Strength of screening intentions
timeFrame: Day 1
measure: Strength of intentions to talk to a health care provider about being screened for colorectal cancer
timeFrame: Day 1
measure: Proportion of participants who seek personal risk information
timeFrame: Day 1
measure: Proportion of participants screened for colorectal cancer after 9 months
timeFrame: At least 9 months after start of study
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Self-efficacy for colorectal cancer screening
timeFrame: Day 1
measure: Positive and negative affect
timeFrame: Day 1
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Buffalo
country: United States
facility: University at Buffalo
state: New York
Study officials:
affiliation: University at Buffalo
name: Heather Orom Associate Professor, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: