Public health campaigns to raise awareness and encourage help-seeking for symptoms of colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC), also generally termed bowel cancer, is the third most common cancer worldwide and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths. The potential for public health campaigns to raise awareness of and prompt timely action in response to symptoms of CRC, and therefore enhance health outcomes, has received much attention. This article discusses the importance of public health campaigns and outlines some of the methods that can be used to raise awareness and encourage help-seeking. It also outlines a scoping review protocol for exploring this area further. The scoping review is the third and final stage of the author’s PhD – a multi-methods study to better understand the routes to diagnosis for CRC across an urban and rural hospital in central New Zealand. Given nurses’ proximity to patients across the healthcare system, enhancing their awareness of the approaches and language likely to influence health-seeking behaviours may strengthen their capacity to improve patient outcomes.