Remote tailored intervention (TeleCARE) was associated with increased colonoscopy uptake among at-risk relatives of patients with colorectal cancer, according to a study published online in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
Participants in the study included family members of patients with colorectal cancer who were not up-to-date with colonoscopy screening. The participants were then randomly assigned to one of two groups: TeleCARE (N=232) or an educational brochure (N=249).
Results showed that 42.7% of participants in the TeleCARE intent-to-treat analysis had a medically-verified colonoscopy, compared to 24.1% of participants in the educational brochure group (OR = 2.37; 95% CI: 1.59, 3.52). Cost was identified as a barrier for the majority of both experimental cohorts (TeleCARE=62.5% and educational brochure=57.0%). Individuals in the TeleCARE group not affected by the cost barrier were four times as likely to have a colonoscopy compared to those in the educational brochure group (OR = 3.66; 95% CI: 1.85, 7.24).
Overall, the participants in the TeleCARE group were almost twice as likely to have a colonoscopy compared to their counterparts (OR = 1.99; 95% CI: 1.12, 3.52).
The study suggests that remote interventions could be an effective means of increasing colonoscopy screening regardless of cost barriers.
Remote tailored intervention (TeleCARE) was associated with increased colonoscopy uptake among at-risk relatives for colorectal cancer.
We tested the efficacy of a remote tailored intervention (TeleCARE) compared to a mailed educational brochure for improving colonoscopy uptake among at-risk relatives of colorectal cancer patients and examined subgroup differences based on participant reported cost barriers.