Peer Patient Navigation for Colon Cancer Screening

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Screening Colonoscopy

In brief

Cancer health disparities related to race and ethnicity are among the most serious problems facing the US health care system. A recent institute of medicine report stated that such disparities are seen at every level of health care, from prevention to treatment and follow-up. This problem is acutely evident in the figures for colorectal cancer (CRC) among African Americans. According to the American cancer society, African Americans have the highest CRC incidence and mortality of any ethnic/racial group. Indeed, CRC incidence and mortality are 15% and 43% higher among African Americans than whites, respectively. These disparities could be effectively reduced through greater African American participation in CRC screening and early detection. More importantly, due to the preponderance of CRC in African Americans beyond the reach of the flexible sigmoidoscopy (1), increased adherence to colonoscopy among African Americans will save lives. Although there is clear evidence that providing patients with someone to help them manage/navigate the health care system (i.e., patient navigation (PN)) is effective in helping them to complete cancer screening, very few hospitals provide PN for colonoscopy. The vast majority of hospitals in NYC are unable to provide PN for patients for whom colonoscopy is recommended, in large part because of the costs associated with professional-led PN. This project seeks to address this serious public health problem by investigating the success of training African Americans who have undergone colonoscopy to serve as volunteer peer patient navigators to encourage others from their community to complete CRC screening via colonoscopy.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT02194959

Run by

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

People needed

800

Starts

2011-07-01

Expected to finish

2011-12-01

Last updated by the study team

2014-07-28

Who can join

Age: 50 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Be self-identified as African-American
• Referral from a primary care physician for colonoscopy
• Agree to undergo colonoscopy at a participating hospital
• Be at least 50 years of age or older
• Have telephone service
• Be able to provide informed consent in English

You may not qualify if…

• Personal or family history (1st degree relative) of colon cancer
• Personal history of any chronic GI disorder (i.e., irritable bowel syndrome, colitis)

Where it is running

• Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai — New York, New York, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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