Perspectives of international experts and the Danish citizens on the 'relevant knowledge' that citizens need for making informed choices about participation in cancer screening: Qualitative study.

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to investigate the perspectives of international experts and Danish citizens on relevant knowledge about population-based breast, colorectal and cervical cancer screening.

METHODS

This was a qualitative interview study with focus group interviews with experts and Danish citizens eligible for breast, colorectal and/or cervical cancer screening. Data were collected using semi-structured interview guides, audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. A thematic analysis was conducted.

RESULTS

Participants were nine international experts from Germany, Canada, the USA, Sweden, the Netherlands and Australia, and 54 citizens from Denmark. Most citizens had 'adequate' or 'problematic' levels of health literacy. Themes that experts and citizens agreed on were: knowledge about the disease and symptoms, practical information about screening, benefits of screening, the option of non-participation and the importance of having numeric information of possible screening outcomes. Experts agreed on the importance of knowledge about the harms of screening, but only a minority of citizens considered this important.

CONCLUSIONS

The experts and citizens disagreed on the relevance of knowledge about harms of screening and agreed on other relevant knowledge.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

What experts and citizens find important may not align when making informed decisions. Therefore, experts and citizens needs to be involved when developing questionnaires.