Interventions to improve participation in bowel cancer screening: the value of lay advocacy and positive framing of risk.

Improved participation in screening for bowel cancer is desirable. Currently population scale bowel cancer screening program delivery is by mailed offer from a central screening service and invitations include a faecal occult blood detection kit. Invitees may decline the offer because they do not feel they are at risk, or because they do not engage with the program. We have developed invitation letters to that include either improved risk messages or messages from previous screening participants in order to overcome these barriers. We will randomly select invitees from the electoral roll and compare population screening participation between groups with or without the preliminary letter to determine which program results in the greater participation rate. Improved participation in screening will ultimately reduce deaths from bowel cancer