
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
1 Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research and 2 Department of Biometry, University of Texas School of Public Health; 3 Department of Behavioral Science, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas; 4 Division of Medical Oncology, Department of Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and 5 Department of Biometery and Epidemiology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina
Requests for reprints: Amy McQueen, Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research, University of Texas School of Public Health, 7000 Fannin, Suite 2568, Houston, TX 77030. Phone: 713-500-9782; Fax: 713-500-9750. E-mail: Amy.McQueen{at}uth.tmc.edu
| Abstract |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Method: The sample included 2,693 White male automotive workers at increased occupational risk for, but no history of, CRC who completed a baseline survey. Stratified analyses were conducted for three dependent variables (prior CRCS, CRCS initiation, and CRCS maintenance). We also assessed prior CRCS as a moderator in prospective analyses. Multivariable logistic regression analyses with generalized linear mixed models were used to adjust for cluster sampling.
Results: Except for education, cross-sectional correlates of prior CRCS including older age, family history of CRC or polyps, personal history of polyps, self-efficacy, family support, and intention were also significant prospective predictors of increased CRCS during the trial. Despite differences in the patterns of association for CRCS initiation and maintenance in stratified analyses, the only associations with prospective CRCS that were significantly moderated by prior CRCS were family history and CRCS availability.
Conclusions: Correlates of prior CRCS that also were prospective predictors of CRCS may be suitable targets for intervention. Additionally, intervention messages addressing psychosocial constructs may be relevant for both CRCS initiation and maintenance. However, studies with more diverse samples are needed to replicate the results reported here. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2007;16(3):5009)
| Introduction |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Previous studies have identified numerous cross-sectional correlates, but few studies have examined prospective predictors of CRCS. Although demographic variables have been associated with CRCS (6-8) and may be useful for identifying population subgroups for intervention, they are less amenable to change and are not as useful in interventions designed to motivate screening use. Only a few studies have systematically used theories or models of behavior change to predict CRCS (9). Psychosocial constructs positively associated with CRCS include a preventive health orientation, perceived benefits (pros) and fewer barriers (cons) to screening, self-efficacy, and intention (10). Very few psychosocial constructs have been examined in prospective studies, and fewer have been examined across studies (10). Even when the same constructs were used, they were often defined and operationalized differently, and most measures of psychosocial constructs have not been validated. Therefore, very little is known about the importance of these factors for CRCS.
Predictors may differ depending on whether the outcome of interest is CRCS initiation or maintenance; however, few prospective studies have examined CRCS stratified by past screening behavior (11). Identifying the similarities and differences in factors associated with initiation and maintenance will provide a stronger foundation for developing effective interventions. We examined correlates of prior CRCS (cross-sectional analysis) and predictors of CRCS initiation and maintenance (stratified prospective analyses). Additionally, we tested whether prior CRCS moderated the association between predictors and any future CRCS use.
This report presents a secondary analysis of data from The Next Step Trial, a 2-year behavioral intervention trial to promote regular CRCS and dietary change in automotive workers (12). The Preventive Health Model (PHM; ref. 13) was the conceptual framework used in this study. The PHM has been used to study intention and behavior for colorectal (13-15) and prostate cancer screening (16, 17). We used this model to select variables that have previously been associated with cancer screening to answer our first research question: Are cross-sectional correlates of CRCS also significant predictors of future CRCS? Because of the scant attention to psychosocial variables in the literature, we were specifically interested in their association with CRCS after accounting for background predictors. Previous prospective associations have been found between CRCS and perceived benefits and barriers, self-efficacy, and intention; therefore, we expected that they would be significant predictors of CRCS (11, 13, 18). Few theories or models distinguish between screening initiation and maintenance or specify whether determinants differ (19, 20). Thus, our second research question was: Do the predictors of CRCS initiation and CRCS maintenance significantly differ? Because there was little basis for hypothesis testing, exploratory analyses examined whether these variables were similarly associated with prior CRCS, CRCS initiation, and CRCS maintenance. Additionally, the predictive ability (e.g., sensitivity and specificity) of the regression models predicting screening was examined.
| Materials and Methods |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Study Population
There were 5,042 current and former automotive workers who were eligible for the trial (i.e., worked in pattern- and model-making for at least 2 years at a minimum of 20% time). Annual surveys were sent to eligible workers in 1993, 1994, and 1995. Nonrespondents received a reminder postcard after 2 weeks and a telephone call after 4 weeks. If a nonrespondent did not receive a survey or did not remember receiving it, another was mailed. In 1993, 2,903 (58%) workers responded to the baseline questionnaire. Survey responders were more likely to be older, married, retired, nonsmokers, have more formal education, have a personal history of colorectal polyps, and have had CRCS before and during the trial (23). After excluding women (n = 53), non-White males (n = 114), and men with a history of CRC (n = 43), 2,693 non-Hispanic White males were retained for analysis.
Measures
Dependent Variables
Each year, data on screening tests completed were provided by worksite staff and self-report surveys (12, 23). Eligible employees completing at least one screening test during the 2-year "pretrial" period were considered covered for that period (12). Likewise, eligible employees completing at least one test during the 2-year trial were considered covered for that period. Employees not recommended for screening because they were not due also were considered covered.
Three dependent variables assessing screening coverage were examined. In the cross-sectional analysis, the dependent variable was "screened prior" to the trial; men who were covered in the 2-year period before the trial were compared with men who were not. In the prospective analyses, men who met the definition for coverage during the 2-year trial were classified into two groups (i.e., CRCS initiation and maintenance) and compared with men who were not covered during the trial. "CRCS initiation" included men who were not covered during the pretrial period, but who were covered during the trial. Initiation during the trial included men who had never been screened previously, as well as men overdue for screening. It was not possible to distinguish between men who had never been screened and men who were overdue because CRCS histories were not available beyond the 2 years before the trial. "CRCS maintenance" included men who were covered during the 2-year pretrial period and during the trial.
Independent Variables
The PHM consists of background, cognitive and psychological, social influence, intention, and program variables. PHM variables were abstracted from employee records or the baseline survey. Program variables were collected at baseline by surveying plant medical staff at each worksite to ascertain characteristics related to delivery of the screening program (23).
PHM background variables included demographic characteristics (age, education, marital status, and retirement status), risk factors (family history of CRC or polyps), and medical history data (smoking status, personal history of colorectal polyps).
PHM cognitive and psychological, social influence, and intention variables were measured by scales and single items using a four-point Likert format (25). Scales measured belief in the salience and coherence of CRCS (four items), perceived CRCS self-efficacy (four items), perceived susceptibility to colorectal polyps or cancer (three items), worries or fears about being diagnosed with CRC (two items), and intention to be screened for CRC (two items). Single items were used to measure belief in the effectiveness of CRCS in detecting CRC, belief that polyp removal can prevent CRC, belief that CRC can be cured, concern about CRCS-related discomfort, and support for CRCS from family members. Responses were skewed and some response categories were sparse; therefore, all items and mean scale scores were dichotomized at <3 (disagree or strongly disagree) or
3 (strongly agree or agree).
PHM program variables indicated whether the worksite was assigned to an intervention or control study condition; CRCS was administered onsite (yes, no) and for what period of time (all year, not all year long); how FOBT kits were distributed (mail only, mail and/or at appointment, employee pickup, other); and the number of options for scheduling CRCS appointments (1,
2). Scheduling options varied by worksite and included employees who called to make an appointment, staff who called employees to make an appointment, and education/information sessions that included CRCS scheduling.
Data Analysis
Univariate analyses were conducted using
2 tests to examine associations between baseline independent variables and prior CRCS, CRCS initiation, and CRCS maintenance. To test the statistical significance of predictors found to be differentially associated with CRCS initiation and maintenance in the stratified prospective analyses, we assessed whether prior CRCS coverage modified any of the associations between those predictors and CRCS coverage during the trial. Following Hosmer and Lemeshow (26), P < 0.10 was selected for model building, which decreases the likelihood of making type II errors. However, in the multivariable logistic regression models, P < 0.05 was used to minimize type I errors. To maintain comparability, independent variables were retained in all multivariable models unless the univariate associations were P > 0.10 for all models. Study group also was retained in all models to account for any intervention effects. Generalized linear mixed models were conducted with Proc Glimmix in SAS 9.1 to adjust for the effects of cluster sampling and account for correlations within a worksite. We report odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals and we used least squares means to interpret significant interactions.
For all analyses, participants with any missing data were excluded. The percentage of missing responses for independent variables ranged from 0 for employment status (retired versus active) and program variables to 8.2% for family support.
2 tests with Bonferroni correction for multiple tests indicated that respondents with complete data were more likely (P < 0.001) to be younger, married, have more formal education, have a family history of CRC or polyps, and had had CRCS in the 2 years before the trial. However, all effect sizes were very small (ESr < 0.10; ref. 27).
Only the prospective models allowed direct assessment of the abilities of our models to predict CRCS initiation and maintenance. We compared the classifications based on our prospective models to the observed behavior for each study participant. To make these comparisons, we calculated sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values. Sensitivity measures the proportion of participants classified as being screened (i.e., CRCS initiators or maintainers) by the set of variables in the regression model who were observed to be screened during the trial. Specificity measures the proportion of participants classified as not being screened during the trial who, in fact, were not screened. Positive predictive value indicates the proportion of participants who were actually screened during the trial among the participants who were predicted to be screened by the regression model. Negative predictive value refers to the proportion of participants who actually did not get screened among the participants who were predicted not to be screened. All model variables were included in the classification plots with a cutoff of 0.5. Cases with predicted values that exceed the classification cutoff are classified as positive (screened), whereas those with predicted values smaller than the cutoff are classified as negative (not screened). These calculations are an important step in model validation because association is not sufficient evidence of prediction. Models with high sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values indicate that there is little misclassification.
| Results |
|---|
|
|
|---|
|
0.10) with at least one dependent variable (Table 1, columns 2-4) and were included in all three multivariable analyses.
Stratified Multivariable Analyses
For CRCS before the trial, most background variables and three psychosocial variables were significant correlates. Older age, more years of education, a family history of CRC or polyps, a personal history of polyps, high perceived self-efficacy, support for CRCS from family members, and strong intention to be screened were positively associated with prior CRCS.
For CRCS initiation during the trial, few variables remained statistically significant in multivariable analysis (Table 2 ). Being married, having a family history of CRC or polyps, having any personal history of polyps, and reporting a strong intention to be screened were positively associated with CRCS initiation.
|
Moderated Analyses
Univariate analyses identified several factors that significantly interacted with prior CRCS when predicting any CRCS coverage during the trial (i.e., initiation or maintenance): age, marital status, family history of CRC or polyps, belief that CRC can be cured, CRCS availability, and FOBT distribution method. However, in the multivariable analysis predicting CRCS coverage during the trial that added all main effects, only the effects of family history and CRCS availability were significantly moderated by prior CRCS (Table 2). Men with a family history of CRC or polyps were significantly more likely to initiate screening during the trial compared with men without a family history (Fig. 1
). Having CRCS available onsite throughout the year was associated with increased CRCS maintenance, but CRCS availability had no effect on CRCS initiation (Fig. 2
). Significant main effects that were maintained in the full model with interactions included age, family history, personal polyp history, self-efficacy, family support, intention, study condition, prior CRCS, CRCS availability, and FOBT distribution (Table 2). Being in a worksite that distributed FOBT kits by other methods (e.g., at an education/information session) was associated with increased CRCS during the trial.
|
|
70% of the time.
|
| Discussion |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Significant associations in this study are generally consistent with observations from cross-sectional studies of prior CRCS, and they extend the literature on predictors of future screening behavior (Table 4 ). Cumulative evidence from our findings and other reports in the literature involving prospective studies and multivariable analyses suggests consistent associations between CRCS and perceived benefits and barriers, self-efficacy, physician recommendation, and intention (Table 4). Future interventions should address the variables that are consistently associated with CRCS; however, additional psychosocial variables that have not been as thoroughly examined in previous research also may be important targets for intervention. Specifically, variables measuring affect and social influence have seldom been studied in relation to CRCS (Table 4). The positive associations we observed between family members' support and CRCS suggest that involving family members may be a strategy for increasing both CRCS initiation and maintenance. The inconsistent findings about the effect of knowledge on CRCS (Table 4) may be due to low variance in knowledge measures or to a bidirectional association with screening behavior. Additionally, the inconsistent findings in the literature about perceived susceptibility to CRC on CRCS may be due to the different measures used (29) and the likelihood that the effect of perceived susceptibility on behavior is mediated by other psychosocial variables (30).6 Our conceptual framework, the PHM, posits only direct effects between predictors and intention and behavior, which may underestimate the total effects of CRCS determinants through other mediating variables (30). Future studies that explore more complex causal models of CRCS are needed to extend previous research, which has largely focused on demographic correlates of CRCS in direct-effects-only models.
|
Despite the differences in stratified analyses, most predictors were relevant for both CRCS initiation and maintenance. Prior screening only moderated the effect of family history and CRCS availability, suggesting that interventions addressing psychosocial variables may be equally effective for motivating individuals who have never been screened and those who are overdue for regular screening. However, future research should replicate these findings with more diverse samples. Because most health behavior theories do not identify specific determinants or causal mechanisms that distinguish between behavior initiation and maintenance, more research is needed to provide further support for the usefulness of conceptual models like the PHM for both initiation and maintenance of cancer screening behaviors.
Our observed interactions between prior CRCS and family history and CRCS availability may inform future interventions designed to increase CRCS initiation and/or maintenance. Family history of CRC has been consistently associated with CRCS in prior research (7, 31, 32); however, results in this report show that reporting a family history of CRC or polyps influenced men to initiate, but not maintain, CRCS. Screening may allay concerns about increased hereditary risk factors and no longer motivate CRCS maintenance, whereas a personal history of polyps reinforces the need for repeated CRCS. The availability of CRCS varied across worksite screening programs, and our results suggest that offering CRCS onsite throughout the year increased CRCS maintenance but had no effect on CRCS initiation. Although more convenient for men overdue for repeat CRCS, having CRCS available throughout the year may decrease any sense of urgency and allow nonscreeners to procrastinate about initiating the behavior. More research is needed to examine predictors of CRCS and their interaction with prior CRCS to better understand and influence screening behavior over time.
Predictive Validity
The predictive validity analyses may inform decisions about what variables to target in intervention studies by indicating the percentage of study participants the model correctly identifies. Based on these analyses, there may be greater confidence in the predictors of maintenance. However, among men who were screened before the trial, the model was unable to identify those who were not screened during the trial ("true negatives") and misclassified many participants as repeat screeners ("false positives"). Only 15% of men who were screened before the trial were not screened during the trial, which may make it difficult to identify true negatives. These results suggest that other, unmeasured variables are important for predicting relapse among prior screeners. Likewise, future work is needed to identify other important factors that affect CRCS initiation.
Limitations and Conclusions
Limitations of The Next Step Trial have been discussed elsewhere (12, 23, 24). The survey response rate of 58% was similar to other worksite health promotion studies that used similar methods (33-35); however, basing inferences only on data from survey respondents may introduce bias. Survey nonresponse increased the CRCS prevalence estimates reported here because screening data were available for 75% of survey respondents but only 43% of nonrespondents. In a previous report of the intervention trial results, an intention-to-treat analysis was done that included participants without screening data who were assumed to be nonscreeners (12). Because survey respondents were more likely to be older, married, and to have been screened in the 2 years before the trial, all factors positively associated with CRCS during the trial, the observed associations between CRCS, and the predictor variables may have been attenuated.
Item nonresponse reduced the analysis sample for some comparisons and may have decreased the power to detect some significant associations. Although the sample was composed of White, male automotive workers at increased risk for CRC, the patterns of association observed here were generally consistent with those reported in the literature (Table 4). The data were collected before 1997 when guidelines for CRCS were published (36). However, the study population was informed that they were at increased risk for CRC and were offered free screening through their employer. Thus, their awareness of and belief in the efficacy of CRCS may be similar to the general population after 1997.
Because CRCS histories were not available beyond the 2 years before the trial, we could not determine the number of men who initiated screening during the trial who had never been screened versus those who were overdue for screening, which may have caused some misclassification. Additional studies are needed to examine whether predictors differ across measures of first-time screening, overdue screening, and repeated, on-schedule screening (maintenance). Additionally, the effect of prior screening experience on future screening behavior is likely to be influenced by a number of factors including physician recommendation and preferences for test characteristics such as invasiveness, cost, and intervals for repeat screening.
Strengths of the study include a prospective design with multiple data collection periods, a well-defined study population, a large sample size, a validated survey instrument (25, 37), and the comparison of factors associated with prior CRCS, CRCS initiation, and CRCS maintenance. In this study, if only one definition of CRCS had been examined, different conclusions would have been drawn. More research is needed to investigate similarities or differences in operational definitions of CRCS to better inform intervention efforts. Our findings and others in the literature suggest that perceived benefits and barriers, family influence, self-efficacy, and intention are significant cross-sectional correlates as well as prospective predictors of CRCS. Only two factors significantly interacted with prior screening to suggest that different strategies may be needed to motivate CRCS initiation and maintenance for this study population. However, additional prospective research with more diverse samples is needed to confirm the results reported here and to better understand the mediated and moderated pathways linking background, psychosocial, and program factors with CRCS.
| Footnotes |
|---|
The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
6 A. McQueen, S.W. Vernon, R.E. Myers, B.C. Tilley. Examining mediators of perceived susceptibility of colorectal cancer on screening intention and behavior. Paper presented at the 27th annual meeting for Society of Behavioral Medicine, San Francisco, CA. Submitted for publication, 2006. ![]()
Received 9/ 7/06; revised 12/ 6/06; accepted 12/15/06.
| References |
|---|
|
|
|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
| Cancer Research | Clinical Cancer Research |
| Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention | Molecular Cancer Therapeutics |
| Molecular Cancer Research | Cancer Prevention Research |
| Cancer Prevention Journals Portal | Cancer Reviews Online |
| Annual Meeting Education Book | Cell Growth & Differentiation |