{"doi":"10.1016/j.cgh.2020.07.053","title":"Randomized Controlled Trial of Advance Notification Phone Calls vs Text Messages Prior to Mailed Fecal Test Outreach","abstract":"Background & AimsMailing fecal immunochemical test (FITs) to individuals who are due for screening (mailed FIT outreach) increases colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. Little is known about how phone-based advance notifications (primers) affect the effectiveness of mailed FIT outreach programs.MethodsWe performed a prospective study of patients at a large urban health center, 50–75 years old and due for screening, with no record of a prior FIT. Participants were randomly assigned to groups that received a live phone call primer (n = 1203) or a text message primer (n = 1622), from June through December 2018. The participants were then mailed a FIT kit, followed by 2 automated calls, and live reminder calls delivered by the care team. The main outcome was completion of FIT within 3 months of assignment to the live phone call or text message group.ResultsParticipants had a FIT completion rate of 16.8%, a mean age of 58 years, and 80% were Latino. In adjusted intention to treat analyses (n = 2825), FIT completion rates were higher in the patients assigned to receive a live phone call vs text message primer (percentage point difference, 3.3%; 95% CI, 0.4%–6.2%). Between-group differences increased to 7.3% points (95% CI, 3.6%–11.0%) in the per-protocol analysis of 2144 participants reached by the text message (1320/1622, 81%), live call (438/1203, 36%), or voice message (386/1203, 32%). This rate increased to 14.9% points (95% CI; 9.6%–20.1%) in the per-protocol analysis of 1758 participants reached by the text message or reached by the live call.ConclusionsIn a randomized trial, advance notification live phone calls outperformed text messages in prompting health center patients who had not previously completed a FIT to complete a mailed FIT. Clinicaltrials.gov no: NCT03167125 Mailing fecal immunochemical test (FITs) to individuals who are due for screening (mailed FIT outreach) increases colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. Little is known about how phone-based advance notifications (primers) affect the effectiveness of mailed FIT outreach programs. We performed a prospective study of patients at a large urban health center, 50–75 years old and due for screening, with no record of a prior FIT. Participants were randomly assigned to groups that received a live phone call primer (n = 1203) or a text message primer (n = 1622), from June through December 2018. The participants were then mailed a FIT kit, followed by 2 automated calls, and live reminder calls delivered by the care team. The main outcome was completion of FIT within 3 months of assignment to the live phone call or text message group. Participants had a FIT completion rate of 16.8%, a mean age of 58 years, and 80% were Latino. In adjusted intention to treat analyses (n = 2825), FIT completion rates were higher in the patients assigned to receive a live phone call vs text message primer (percentage point difference, 3.3%; 95% CI, 0.4%–6.2%). Between-group differences increased to 7.3% points (95% CI, 3.6%–11.0%) in the per-protocol analysis of 2144 participants reached by the text message (1320/1622, 81%), live call (438/1203, 36%), or voice message (386/1203, 32%). This rate increased to 14.9% points (95% CI; 9.6%–20.1%) in the per-protocol analysis of 1758 participants reached by the text message or reached by the live call. In a randomized trial, advance notification live phone calls outperformed text messages in prompting health center patients who had not previously completed a FIT to complete a mailed FIT. Clinicaltrials.gov no: NCT03167125","journal":"Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology","year":2020,"id":103311,"datarank":0.7995898318849204,"base_score":3.258096538021482,"endowment":3.258096538021482,"self_citation_contribution":0.4887144807032224,"citation_network_contribution":0.31087535118169807,"self_endowment_contribution":0.4887144807032224,"citer_contribution":0.31087535118169807,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":25,"citer_count":13,"citers_with_citation_signal":9,"citers_with_endowment":9,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.951,"is_data_producer":true,"deposit_databanks":{"ClinicalTrials.gov":["NCT03167125"]},"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":503324,"name":"Denis B. Nyongesa","orcid":"0009-0006-7815-7966","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":301642,"name":"Amanda F. Petrik","orcid":"0000-0002-8891-6042","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":503325,"name":"Jamie H. Thompson","orcid":"0000-0003-3922-4880","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":503326,"name":"Anne L. Escaron","orcid":"0000-0003-0717-0750","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":504078,"name":"Brittany Younger","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":504079,"name":"Shelby Harbison","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":361056,"name":"Michael C. Leo","orcid":"0000-0001-7052-8183","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":270725,"name":"Gloria D. Coronado","orcid":"0000-0003-1130-6542","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":30,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T22:42:17.920911Z","pmid":"32739569","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}