General Practitioners and Participation Rate in ColoRectal Cancer Screening

Improving the Participation Rate in ColoRectal Cancer Screening by Training General Practitioners in Motivational Interviewing

Colorectal cancer is the 2nd leading cause of cancer mortality in France. However this cancer is preventable in the majority of cases by early detection of adenomas.

In France, there is organized colorectal cancer screening, which relies on general practitioners (GPs). Tests delivered by GPs are performed in 89% of cases. However, GPs do not systematically offer the test, for time management and communication reasons. Patients expect their GPs to offer the test and to focus on their expectations. A previous study conducted on GPs showed that training in communication and motivational interviewing increases the number of tests performed by 12.2%.

In order to facilitate the promotion of screening, the investigators would like to develop a training programme for GPs focusing on the application of Motivational Interviewing (MI) techniques to the promotion of colorectal cancer screening.

Motivational Interviewing is a directive, client-centered counseling style for eliciting behavior change by helping clients to explore and resolve ambivalence.

This study is a multicenter trial in general medicine. In this randomized trial the 902 subjects will be included prospectively by the general practitioners (GP) participating in the study.

As a first step, general practitioners who have never participated in Motivational Interviewing training will be recruited and split into 2 groups by randomization, an intervention group and a control group. The interventional group will then undergo a 3 times 2-day training in Motivational Interviewing.

In a second step, the patients will be included by those GP and a self-questionnaire will be send at the inclusion and after 6, 12 and 24 months. The evaluation of the number of tests performed and the analyse of the Health Belief Model (HBM) self-questionnaire will be carried out.

At 24 months, there will be an evaluation of the denial motivation questionnaire for patients who have not participated in organized colorectal cancer screening.

Inclusion Criteria:

• People with an average risk of colorectal cancer (presenting no symptoms or risk factors).
• People living in Finistère.
• People aged 50 to 74 who have never participated in organized screening for colorectal cancer.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Persons without address to receive the Health Belief Model (HBM)questionnaire
• People who do not fit the organized screening criteria
• Persons unable to give consent (patients under guardianship, curatorship, non-French speaking, illiterate)