Outreach and Inreach Strategies for Colorectal Cancer Screening Among Latinos at a Federally Qualified Health Center: A Randomized Controlled Trial, 2015-2018

Am J Public Health. 2020 Apr;110(4):587-594. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2019.305524. Epub 2020 Feb 20.

Abstract

Objectives. To compare usual care, inreach consisting of one-on-one education, mailed outreach offering a fecal immunochemical test (FIT), and a combination of outreach and inreach for promoting colorectal cancer (CRC) screening.Methods. We conducted a 4-arm randomized controlled trial from 2015 to 2018 at a US federally qualified health center near the California-Mexico border primarily serving low-income Hispanics/Latinos. A total of 673 individuals aged 50 to 75 years not up to date with screening were assigned to 1 of the 4 intervention groups. The primary outcome was CRC screening through 6 months follow-up.Results. A total of 671 patients were included in intention-to-screen analyses. Their mean age was 59.9 years, 48.9% were male, and 86.3% were primarily Spanish-speaking. Screening was 27.5% for usual care (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.21, 0.34), 52.7% for inreach (95% CI = 0.45, 0.60), 77.2% for outreach (95% CI = 0.71, 0.83), and 78.9% for combination of inreach and outreach (95% CI = 0.73, 0.85; P < .001 for all comparisons except P = .793 for outreach vs combination).Conclusions. Among individuals at high risk for noncompletion, inreach with one-on-one education nearly doubled, and outreach offering mailed FIT alone or in combination with inreach nearly tripled screening compared with usual care. Mailed FIT outreach was superior to inreach for promoting screening.

Publication types

  • Randomized Controlled Trial
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • California
  • Colorectal Neoplasms / diagnosis*
  • Early Detection of Cancer / statistics & numerical data*
  • Female
  • Hispanic or Latino
  • Humans
  • Immunochemistry
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Occult Blood
  • Patient Compliance / statistics & numerical data*
  • Patient Education as Topic / methods*