Awareness and Information Seeking About Bowel Cancer and Screening in a Remote Australian Community: A Qualitative...

Understanding how individuals find bowel cancer and screening information and what influences awareness may support targeted interventions and encourage informed participation in screening programmes and support early detection. This study aimed to identify factors that influence remote community members information-seeking behaviours and awareness of bowel cancer and screening.

A qualitative study was conducted with 16 community members aged 50-years and over living in a remote Tasmanian community in Australia. Semi-structured interviews were informed by the Theoretical Domains Framework and Behaviour Change Wheel. Interview questions were reviewed by three consumers with lived experience of bowel cancer and screening to improve clarity and accessibility. Interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis with inductive and deductive coding.

Information‑seeking was shaped by self‑efficacy, health literacy, personal relevance, and social influences, with trusted healthcare providers playing a central role. Awareness influenced screening decisions, while screening experiences also built awareness across the screening pathway to diagnosis. Some participants screened with an understanding of the risks and benefits, while others complied without understanding why, and some with low awareness chose not to screen. Awareness most often developed through passive information exposure, including environmental cues, screening material prompts, and social influences of routine healthcare encounters, and conversations with family, friends, and healthcare providers, rather than through active information‑seeking.

In this remote community, bowel cancer awareness was commonly shaped through passive exposure rather than deliberate searching and influenced the quality of screening decision‑making. Health promotion strategies that embed accessible, plain‑language information within everyday community and healthcare settings, and leverage trusted relationships, may better support informed and equitable participation in bowel cancer screening than approaches that rely on active information‑seeking.

Consumers with a lived experience of bowel cancer and screening contributed to this study by reviewing the interview guide structure and questions prior to the researchers undertaking the interviews. This improved the plain language and the participants understanding of the questions, with the addition of an introductory script outlining the study aims and process of the interview. The final interview guide was sent to the consumers for approval prior to the first interview being conducted. These consumers did not participate in this study. Remote Tasmanian community members who were eligible or previously eligible to participate in the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program contributed to this study as participants who shared their experiences and insights into bowel cancer and screening information-seeking behaviours and awareness.