Study on the Impact of Education Website on the Quality of Outpatient Bowel Preparation for Colonoscopy

Overview

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a common and life threatening condition that will affect one in thirteen individuals. Colonoscopy is the most commonly used procedure to identify colorectal malignancies or precancerous lesions at an earlier stage, which affords an opportunity for cure. However, low level of bowel cleanliness hinders polyp detection and therefore can limit colonoscopy effectiveness. Historically, the majority of the studies have focused on pharmacological factors to optimize bowel preparation quality. Recently, non-pharmacological factors have been found to have significant increases in bowel preparation quality. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of web-based instructions vs. the historical phone/letter instructions given to patients planning to have a colonoscopy.

This study is a prospective randomized trial. Four hundred and fifty consecutive eligible patients will be randomized to ideally have two hundred and twenty five patients in each arm. Those who will have traditional paper based instructions and those who will be using an online system. Both groups will receive their instructions by the research assistant prior to leaving the office after being consented. The paper based instructions will be given as a handout and those in the online group will receive their bowel preparation instructions via an email sent by a scheduling assistant

Conditions