Abstract Body

Background and Purpose: The incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) is increasing worldwide. It is a treatable disease if detected in the early period. Therefore, the most important control strategy in colorectal cancer is mass screening. For Turkey, optimal CRC screening methods were determined as fecal occult blood test (FOBT) every 2 years and colonoscopy every 10 years. The CRC screening participation is very low in Turkey. In this study it was aimed to estimate the effect of the Health Belief Model (HBM) based individualized training, on adaptation to CRC screening.

Methods: A randomized controlled trial involving 256 patients (50-70 years old) who had not screened by FOBT in the previous 2 years (126 in intervention group and 130 in control group) is conducted. Sociodemographic information questionnaire and Health Belief Model Scale for Protection from Colorectal Cancer were applied. While HBM based training given to the intervention group, standard information was given to the control group. All participants were informed about CRC screening, test kit and FOBT kits were delivered. Primary outcome was returning the FOBT kit within the determined period. SPSS 24.0 was used.

Results: Screening participation rates were 84.1% in the intervention group and 34.6% in the control group. Participation of the intervention group in CRC screening was found 2.43 times higher. In our study, NNT was found as 2.

Conclusions: HBM based individualized training, easy and applicable in primary care, significantly increased the adaptation to CRC screening.