A Sustainable Approach to Increasing Cancer Screening

For the substudy, the study objective was to:

Determine if there is a difference in completion of a home blood stool test kit by type of home test being employed Fecal Occult Blood Test (gFOBT) vs. Fecal Immunochemical Test (FIT), and to determine predictors of test completion.

Substudy methods/design/arms/eligibility:

All patients who picked up a home blood stool test kit during the 6-12 month study recruitment time period were randomized to receive either a gFOBT or FIT kit. Randomization occurred by the month. Medical assistants (MAs) handed out the kits. Participants who picked up a kit (either gFOBT or FIT) were given a study information card that briefly described the study and had a study opt out phone number on it. If patients did not call and opt out, the card let the patient know that he/she would be contacted via telephone to complete a brief survey, for which they were given a small incentive upon completion.

A bilingual member of the study staff telephoned individuals, who had not opted out, who picked up a home blood stool test kit during the study period. Four to six weeks post kit pickup, staff determined if the patient had returned a completed test to the clinic (yes vs. no) by examining the electronic medical record. This information- whether a patient had/had not returned a completed test was used to tailor some questions asked on the survey. Study staff obtained verbal informed consent before survey administration. Participants who cited that time was a burden stopping them from starting the survey were offered an abbreviated version of the survey.