Latino Peers as Patient Navigators for Colon Cancer Screening

Patients are being referred and scheduled for screening and diagnostic colonoscopy as part of standard of care.

For research purposes, participants will be randomized to one of two kinds of patient navigation:

1. Standard patient navigation (Pro-PN) receiving care that they would normally receive if they were not participating in the study with patient navigation from the primary mentor's staff.
2. Peer Patient Navigation (Peer-PN): Participants will be assisted by Latino/Hispanic peers who have undergone colonoscopy, and are able to discuss, first-hand, their personal experience undergoing colonoscopy and describe how they coped effectively with the procedure. Medical advice will not be given.

Both groups will receive 3 intervention phone calls from their assigned navigators: 1) to schedule the colonoscopy 2) a reminder call two weeks before the procedure and 3) a reminder call three days before the procedure. PPN's will undergo three months of training supervised by Dr. Sly (who will be mentored/supervised by Dr. Itzkowitz and Professor Jandorf). Multiple modes of training will be used (didactic discussion, observation, role-playing, one-on-one sessions, ongoing feedback, rehearsal, supervision (by study investigator and mentors) via review of audio-tape recordings of Latino peers' navigation phone calls to the participants and a take-home training manual).

Patients receiving standard patient navigation will receive the care and assessments that they would normally receive if they were not participating in a study. Patients in the Peer-PN group will be guided through the colonoscopy process by a Latino/Hispanic peer who has undergone colonoscopy and will provide the personal prospective of how they coped with the procedure.

At some point before the colonoscopy procedure, patients will receive a phone call, during which a research assistant will administer a questionnaire in the form of an interview. Study staff will assess health care behavior, fear of colonoscopy and concerns about CRC screening, medical mistrust, interpersonal communication, social influence, and self-efficacy. A medical chart review will also be completed after the colonoscopy for all patients to assess completion of the examination as well as prep quality and any findings where additional clinical follow-up was required. Colonoscopy results will also be collected to assess quality of care and measure the efficacy of Peer-PN navigations compared to standard navigation, particularly potential differences based on study group, i.e., compliance. No other information outside of standard of care will be collected.