(HealthDay News) — An interactive multimedia computer program (IMCP) tailored to expanded health belief model sociopsychological factors is no more effective for encouraging colorectal cancer screening than a control nontailored informational program, according to a study published in the May/June issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.
Anthony Jerant, MD, from the University of California Davis School of Medicine in Sacramento, and colleagues conducted a randomized trial to examine whether an IMCP could promote colorectal cancer screening in a multiethnic sample.
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A total of 1,164 patients were enrolled, stratified by ethnicity and language (49.3% non-Hispanic, 27.2% Hispanic/English, and 23.4% Hispanic/Spanish), and were randomly allocated to IMCP tailored to sociopsychological factors or a nontailored informational program.
The researchers found that, compared with control patients, IMCP correlated with significantly greater colorectal cancer screening knowledge, self-efficacy, readiness, test preference specificity, discussion, and recommendation, after adjustment for ethnicity/language, study center, and the previsit value of the dependent variable.
Twenty-three percent of ICMP and 22% of control patients received screening during follow-up (difference, 0.5%; 95% confidence interval, −4.3 to 5.3). The effects of IMCP did not vary by ethnicity/language.
“Sociopsychological factor tailoring was no more effective than nontailored information in encouraging colorectal cancer screening in a multiethnic sample, despite enhancing sociopsychological factors and visit behaviors associated with screening,” the researchers wrote.
