Objective: Prostate cancer is now deadlier than breast cancer in the UK, with more than 12,000 men dying from it in the country in 2018. Black men are nearly three times more likely to suffer prostate cancer, with one in four contracting the disease in their lifetime. Despite being a high risk group very few black men aged 45 and over visit their GP to discuss the pros and cons of screening. This is a problem as early onset of the disease presents no symptoms and when symptoms do appear, such as urinary problems, and men do visit a doctor it is often too late to reverse the cancer's spread. This study investigates using the strong social norm of wives and girlfriends being the guardian of black men's health as a way of influencing their behaviour.
Methods: Using a historically controlled study via email we tested the social norm nudge in the field with 13 Afro-Caribbean organisations across the UK.
Results: The trial found the social norm nudge produced a 15.5 per cent click-through rate, which was significantly higher than the historical controls. Meanwhile, the messenger effect saw a click-through rate of 38.5 per cent on men.
Conclusion: At a national level the social norm nudge would equate to 37,315 black women taking positive action to find out more information about their husband or boyfriend's high risk of contracting prostate cancer.
Practice implications: Use clinicians as messengers in correspondence to promote engagement with information about prostate cancer screening.
Keywords: Behaviour change; Nudge; Prostate cancer; Screening.
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