Engaging Retiring Military Personnel in VA Lung Cancer Screening Through a Codesigned Communication Campaign
Abstract
Lung cancer kills 5,000 Veterans per year, or 14 Veterans, on average, every day. Veterans and military Service Members are at increased risk of lung cancer because of their age, smoking history, and possible military exposures to Agent Orange, asbestos or burn pits. Lung cancer screening saves lives. It can reduce lung cancer deaths by 20%, which would translate to ~1000 fewer Veteran deaths per year. People are eligible for lung cancer screening if they are between the ages of 50-80 years, currently smoke cigarettes or quit within the past 15 years, and have at least 20 pack-years total smoking history. Too many people – including both Veterans and retiring military Service Members – are eligible for lung cancer screening but do not get screened, often because they are not aware lung cancer screening is available for them. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has excellent lung cancer screening services, but this program typically focused on Veterans who are already enrolled in VA healthcare. Retiring military Service Members are an important but overlooked group to make aware of lung cancer screening. Smoking is widespread throughout the military, with almost 30% of Veterans reporting current tobacco product use. More than 20,000 Service Members of an age eligible for lung cancer screening retire each year. Yet, the VA does not currently have an outreach program to let retiring military Service Members know about VA’s national, high-quality lung cancer screening program, and we intend to change that. Our VA-based research has been working to improve lung cancer screening for Veterans. In this study our team will learn from retiring military Service Members what is important to include in a lung cancer screening campaign targeting other retiring military Service Members. We will then work with a group of retiring military Service Members to co-design a lung cancer screening website, social media advertisements, such as on Facebook, and mail information sheets. Finally, we will test these three ways of communicating about lung cancers to see if this is a feasible and acceptable approach to reach retiring military Service Members and, if the campaign changes, how they think about lung cancer. The resulting communication campaign will help the VA tell retiring military Service Members about VA’s lung cancer screening program. This project provides an innovative strategy for the screening and early detection of lung cancer.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jan 04, 2024
- Source ID
- HT94252310944
Entities
People
- Gemmae Fix
Organizations
- United States Army