Free Fecal Immunochemical Test Disbursement in Eight Family Physician Offices

Abstract

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer death. CRC screening with a fecal immunochemical test (FIT) is important as occult blood may be detected. To offer Iowa Research Network members in family physician offices the opportunity to provide FITs at no charge to patients in need and determine how many of the tests would be handed out to patients and how many would be returned to the office. Eight family physician offices agreed to participate and 50 two-day FITs were provided, potentially providing 400 patients a CRC screening test. One hundred and eighty (45 %) of the 400 FITs were handed out to patients. Of the 92 (51 %) patients who returned at least one card, 77 (84 %) had negative results, 13 (14 %) were positive, and 2 (2 %) were indeterminate. Of 13 patients with a positive result, 11 (85 %) had a follow-up colonoscopy. Providing 400 FITs at no charge to the offices was an expensive endeavor. Implementing this forced a change in office routine and the type of fecal occult blood test used. Less than half of the FITs were given out to patients and of those given out, about half of the patients returned a FIT. For those who returned FITs and had positive findings, 85 % followed-up with a colonoscopy. Office nurses implementing the CRC screening need to be included in the planning of the type of fecal occult blood test used and receptive to the project

Fecal Immunochemical Test as a Screening Method for Colorectal Cancer in University College Hospital Ibadan, Nigeria

“…The rate of noncompletion of the test could have been more if reminder calls were not made and the sample collected in the patient's home, in some cases. The noncompletion rate in this study is lower than that reported by Daly et al 31 in Iowa, in which only 51% of participants returned the kits, and by Steele et al in Scotland 32 , who reported a nonreturn rate of 39.4% despite the provision of prepaid mailing of kits; no reminder calls were made. The use of reminder systems for both the patient and doctor has been reported by Baker et al 33 to increase the rate of completion of the FIT.…”

Evaluation of polypus growth among fecal immunochemical test positive patients

“…There was another study with participants from a similar age range of 40-70 years, where the mean age was 57 years, which was not that different from our findings. 8 There was no significant age difference between the male and female participants of our study, which was similar to the findings of another study. 5 Some other studies with younger study participants reported that the incidence rate among adults younger than age 50 years is increasing due to an increase in left-sided tumors.…”