Socially-Responsible Health Communication to Increase Lung Cancer Screening Awareness

Given the burden of tobacco use and lung cancer within the Owensboro Health service area, the focus on tobacco-related health concerns within the grant program, and the combined emergence of empirical data and policy supporting the utility of lung cancer screening, this program seeks to expand community awareness of lung cancer screening as well as patient information seeking about lung cancer screening through reliable and trustworthy resources. Not only is awareness important for consideration of lung cancer screening, it creates options for primary prevention as well, by generating interest in lung cancer prevention efforts that involve tobacco treatment, radon awareness and mitigation, and other efforts to reduce exposure to lung cancer risk factors. In this project, we will work with a range of community partners to implement and evaluate a community-based health communication effort (e.g., Lung Cancer Screening Program at Owensboro Health, Kentucky Cancer Program, American Cancer Society, Lung Cancer Alliance, Kentucky Cancer Consortium, Lung Cancer Network of the Kentucky Cancer Consortium, and the Kentucky LEADS Collaborative. The primary goal of project is to increase community awareness of lung cancer screening and increase information seeking about lung cancer screening that supports efforts to translate lung cancer screening data and policy. The project fills a foundational role in the process of offering high quality lung cancer prevention and control efforts in the Owensboro Health service area. Supporting community awareness and information-seeking will ultimately improve the health of the community by expanding access to lung cancer screening and reducing lung cancer incidence and mortality. Guided by the Socially Responsible Health Communication and Marketing Statement regarding Lung Cancer Screening Implementation developed by the Kentucky LEADS Collaborative, the project team will work with Owensboro Health and community partners to develop and evaluate the impact of a public campaign to raise awareness of lung cancer screening. With the input of community partners, the project team will design and deploy a community billboard and nine posters throughout the Owensboro area with messaging that raises awareness and triggers interest in seeking additional information about lung cancer screening. We will also develop and launch a parallel website with fundamental details about lung cancer screening and encourage individuals to seek more information to contact preferred resources. To evaluate the impact of the media campaign, we will monitor rates of information requests about lung cancer screening to the Owensboro Health LCS Program as well as hits to the project website, including the use of mouse tracking software that can be embedded into the website, as well as Google Analytics, and other tracking software that is available to evaluate the reach of the campaign. Additionally, we will employ a very brief post-viewing survey to gain user insights into use of the project website. To develop the campaign messages, we will work with our collaborators and community members to develop and guide design efforts. We will also employ usability testing and key informant interview to collect data before posting materials in the community. To achieve project goals and conduct proper evaluation, the team proposes to conduct the project in three phases. The first phase will last 6 months and involve development and initial testing efforts for six 6 months. The next three months will involve deployment of the campaign in the community setting, and the final three months will involve data analysis and evaluation of the impact of the campaign.