Using Behavioral Science to Improve Colorectal Cancer Screening Rates With Mailed FIT Kits (FIT)

Impact of Automated Telephone Outreach on Colorectal Cancer Screening Uptake Among Patients Who Receive Mailed Fecal Immunochemical Tests (FIT)

As a part of UCLA Health's continued goal of improving patient care the investigators are updating our mailing campaign for our FIT Kit colorectal cancer screening that the investigators administer 2 times per year to include an automated phone call reminder to patients who are overdue for average-risk colorectal cancer screening and enrolled in a mailed FIT program. This will help the investigators evaluate if automated phone calls are effective at improving compliance with CRC screening, in addition to mailed FIT and embedded electronic health record (EHR) portal messages to patients.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Colorectal Cancer Screening
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Delayed automated phone call

Detailed Description

UCLA Health has a biannual mailed FIT program designed to capture patients overdue for CRC screening who are average-risk for CRC. With every campaign, the investigators attempt to improve the return rates for patients receiving the FIT Kits. For the current campaign, all patients enrolled will receive usual care and the investigators are delivering an automated phone call to half the eligible patients reminding them to return their FIT kits and prompting them to request a new kit if needed. The investigators will investigate if this intervention increases the number of patients who complete the mailed Fit Kit or any type of CRC screening over a 6-month follow up period. This quality improvement project will help the investigators improve the processes of care for the patients, and community. If this phone call is successful the investigators will likely expand it to the entire population in future FIT Kit mailer campaigns. However, if it is not effective this will help the investigators minimize the number of calls/interventions the investigators send to patients and will hopefully allow for more useful outreach to patients in the future.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 2500
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • California
    • Los Angeles, California, United States, 90095
      • UCLA Health Department of Medicine, Quality Office

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 50 years to 75 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Overdue for average-risk colorectal cancer screening
• Active primary care provider at UCLA seen within last 3 years

Exclusion Criteria:

• Inactive mychart status at time of enrollment
• Died within follow-up period
• Received FIT kit in prior 6 months

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Screening
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control; This group will receive standard FIT mailer protocol (includes mailed FIT kit plus standardized messaging via EHR portal)
Experimental: Intervention; This group will receive standard FIT mailer protocol (as above) PLUS delayed automated phone reminder	Behavioral: Delayed automated phone call; Cipher provides automated phone calls to patients; in this case the script for Cipher was modified to provide patients a reminder to return FIT kits, allow patients to request a new kit in case they need a replacement, and to allow patients to provide information if they already completed CRC screening; Other Names: Cipher phone reminder

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Overall colorectal cancer screening uptake (any modality)	Rate of completion of CRC screening by any of the following: FIT, colonoscopy, CT colonography, sigmoidoscopy or FIT-DNA within study period.	6 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Colorectal cancer screening uptake by modality	Rate of completion of CRC screening by modality type	6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of California, Los Angeles

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 2, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 1, 2022
• Study Completion (Actual): August 1, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 24, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 7, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): February 9, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 13, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 11, 2022
• Last Verified: September 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Digestive System Diseases; Neoplasms; Neoplasms by Site; Gastrointestinal Neoplasms; Digestive System Neoplasms; Gastrointestinal Diseases; Colonic Diseases; Intestinal Diseases; Intestinal Neoplasms; Rectal Diseases; Colorectal Neoplasms
• Other Study ID Numbers: IRB #19-001418

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No