Background:Melanoma incidence rates have been increasing among predominantly fair-skinned populations, with Australia having the world’s highest melanoma incidence rates. Risk prediction tools have been proposed as a more accurate method for clinicians to communicate overall risk to patients.
Aim:We aim to assess the effect of personalised melanoma risk information on risk perceptions, intention to adopt risk reducing behaviour and early detection behaviours in Australian general practice.
Methods:Participants will be recruited from metropolitan general practices located in New South Wales, Australia. We will use a parallel group, open randomised design with allocation of 262 participants to one of two groups. Participants in both groups will receive general information on melanoma. In addition, participants in the intervention group will complete a melanoma risk prediction tool and receive personalised assessments of melanoma risk in combination with prevention advice by their usual general practitioner. Measures of melanoma risk perceptions, prevention intentions and early detection will be obtained immediately before the intervention and at 8 weeks follow up. Differences between randomised groups will be compared at follow up after adjusting for baseline values.
Results:
Conclusions:The study will provide evidence-based data on the effect of personalised melanoma risk information on risk reducing behaviours. There is potential for wider distribution and use of the melanoma risk prediction tool if better health outcomes are demonstrated.