Advantages of wordless instructions on how to complete a fecal immunochemical test: Lessons from patient advisory council members of a federally qualified health center

Gloria D. Coronado, Jen Sanchez, Amanda Petrik, Tanya Kapka, Jen Devoe, Beverly Green

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

32 Scopus citations

Abstract

Some patients face difficulty understanding instructions for completing the fecal immunochemical test (FIT), a self-administered test to screen for colorectal cancer. We sought to develop and test low-literacy instructions for completing the FIT. Working in partnership with a Latino-serving Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in the Portland Metro area, we developed and tested low-literacy instructions for completing the FIT; the instructions contained seven words (mail within 3 days; Devolver dentro de 3 dias). We conducted focus groups of Spanish-speaking patients on the advisory council of our partnering FQHC organization, and we gathered feedback from the project's advisory board members and clinic staff. We mailed a FIT kit to each patient, along with either (a) instructions written in English and Spanish, consisting of 415 words; or (b) low-literacy "wordless" instructions. We asked patients to complete the test before providing feedback. Our qualitative assessment showed that the wordless instructions were preferred over instructions consisting of words. Wordless instructions might aid efforts to raise the rates of colorectal cancer screening among low-literacy and non-English-speaking populations.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)86-90
Number of pages5
JournalJournal of Cancer Education
Volume29
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2014

Keywords

  • Colorectal cancer Screening
  • Fecal Immunochemical Test
  • Health literacy
  • Instructions

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Oncology
  • Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

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