Table 1.

Strategies associated with improved participation in cancer screening

Strategy	Influence on participation
Pre-invitation letters	These have been shown to increase uptake of schedule appointments28
Direct invitation from primary care doctor	Participants respond well to their GP invitation. In the Lung Screen Uptake trial participation rate was 53% in a very deprived population in London29
Inviting to “Lung Health Check”	Not mentioning cancer screening at the outset may reduce fear and the concept of measuring health may help participants to see a potential benefit
Scheduled appointments	These increase attendance compared with no fixed date or time.30
Reminder letters	This has been shown to increase participation in almost all screening programmes and has been confirmed in several of the UK pilots31
No smoking cessation at invite	Initial mention of smoking cessation may put current smokers off attending, so the advice is to only offer this during the face-to-face visit29,32
Positioning of CT scanner in convenient location	Distance to travel and inconvenience is one of the main practical barriers to participation.33