Comparing Methods of Recall for Cancer Screening in Primary Care: a Pragmatic Clinical Trial

Unity Health Toronto

Status: Completed

Conditions: Early Detection of Cancer; Socioeconomic Status; Cancer

Treatments: Behavioral: Phone call; Behavioral: Letter

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02457143

15-145

Details and patient eligibility

About

This randomized trial aims to understand how effective a reminder letter is compared to a reminder phone call in improving breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening rates and reducing screening disparities.

Enrollment: 5,270 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 21 to 74 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• The trial will include patients who are rostered to the family practice as of March 31, 2015, are eligible and overdue for cervical, breast and/or colorectal cancer screening and are verified by their primary care physician as needing recall.

Exclusion criteria

• Patients will be excluded if their primary care physician noted they should not be recalled for screening or if the patient does not have both an address and a phone number on file.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Screening

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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5,270 participants in 2 patient groups

Letter

Experimental group

Description:

Patients will receive a reminder letter signed by their family physician which indicates which cancer screening tests they are overdue for and encourages them to book an appointment for screening.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Letter

Phone call

Experimental group

Description:

Patients will receive a phone call from a member of the practice staff. The call will inform them about which cancer screening tests they are overdue for and will encourage them to book an appointment for screening.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Phone call