A decision aid for helping people to decide about colorectal cancer screening

Background and study aims
Regular colorectal cancer (CRC) screening is recommended for people older than 50 years old because they have a higher risk of developing this disease. However, a significant proportion of this population do not comply with this recommendation. The researchers have developed a web-based decision aid (DA) to help people to make an informed decision about undergoing CRC screening. It includes information about the disease, as well as two screening procedures: fecal occult blood test (FOBT) and colonoscopy (their characteristics, potential benefits and harms). The DA is available on the following link: http://www.pydesalud.com/toma-de-decisiones-en-cancer-colorrectal/. The aim of this study is to find out whether this DA can help people to make informed decisions about CRC screening.
Who can participate?
People between 50-69 years old who have no history of CRC or current symptoms, and who have never had been screened for CRC
What does the study involve?
Participants are randomly allocated to either individually review the DA accompanied by a researcher, or to not review the DA. The main outcome assessed is decisional conflict, that is, participants' uncertainty about undergoing CRC screening or not. The study also assesses their knowledge about CRC and the screening procedures, their intention to be screened, and the importance that they attributed to different characteristics of the screening procedures.

研究背景与研究目标
推荐50岁以上人群定期进行结直肠癌（colorectal cancer, CRC）筛查，因该群体罹患该病的风险更高。然而，该群体中有相当比例的参与者未遵循此项筛查建议。研究人员开发了一款基于网页的决策辅助工具（decision aid, DA），以帮助参与者就结直肠癌筛查做出知情决策。该工具涵盖结直肠癌相关知识，以及两种筛查手段：粪便隐血试验（fecal occult blood test, FOBT）与结肠镜检查（colonoscopy），包括二者的特征、潜在获益与风险。该决策辅助工具可通过以下链接获取：http://www.pydesalud.com/toma-de-decisiones-en-cancer-colorrectal/。本研究的目标为探明该决策辅助工具是否能够帮助参与者就结直肠癌筛查做出知情决策。

可参与本研究的人群
年龄介于50至69岁之间，无结直肠癌病史或当前相关症状，且从未接受过结直肠癌筛查的个体。

本研究的研究内容
参与者将被随机分为两组：一组在研究人员陪同下单独浏览该决策辅助工具，另一组则不浏览该工具。本研究的主要评估结局为决策冲突，即参与者对是否接受结直肠癌筛查的不确定程度。此外，本研究还将评估参与者对结直肠癌及筛查手段的认知水平、参与筛查的意愿，以及其对筛查手段不同特征的重视程度。