A Personalized Phone Call Intervention to Improve Colorectal Cancer (CRC) Screening Adherence in Patients Aged 50-54 at a Rural Family Practice
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Authors
Mallard, Alyssa
Issue Date
2025-05
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Alternative Title
Description/Abstract
Background: Adherence to colorectal cancer (CRC) screenings is an area of cancer screenings that needs ongoing improvement. Colorectal cancer is the second most deadly type of cancer in both men and women (SEER, 2024). Screening recommendations from the U.S. Preventative Service Task Force (USPSTF) have been updated to include ages 45-75. There are still numerous individuals who do not have a single screening on file at the age of 50.
Purpose: Screening interventions have proven effective in improving CRC screening adherence. During this project's implementation, a personalized phone call intervention was utilized. This allowed patients to ask questions and verbalize any fears or barriers to CRC screening nonadherence. The goal of this quality improvement (QI) project was to improve screening adherence in individuals aged 50-54 in a rural family practice office who do not have screenings on file.
Methods: A rural family practice has voiced the desire for improvement in CRC screenings, especially in ages 50-54. There were 115 identified individuals within the practice who did not have screenings on file, consisting of both men and women. The most common screening types are a colonoscopy, which is the most accurate and reliable, fecal occult blood tests (FOBT), fecal immunochemical tests (FIT), and DNA analysis tests. The primary goal was to get patients who were provided the phone call intervention to agree to one of these screening types. The number of referrals for one of these screening types was measured.
Results: Forty of the 115 patients agreed to a referral for screening. Almost 35% of the patients who received a phone call intervention agreed to obtain a CRC screening. Most of these patients did not have prior screenings on file. A McNemar’s chi-square test was utilized to compare pre- to post-screening. The results of the test were significant based on an alpha value of .05, χ2(1) = 19.61, p < .001, suggesting that there was a difference between the number of individuals who chose to get screened post-intervention.
Conclusion: A phone call intervention proved to be an effective intervention in gaining adherence to CRC screenings, with 41 participants agreeing to a type of screening. This intervention could be applied to other preventative screenings. It allowed patients to ask questions and achieve a sense of confidence and ease around screenings. They were also informed of the risks and insidious nature of CRC.