Promoting oral cancer examinations to medical primary care providers: a cluster randomized trial.
To compare the percentage of patients who had an oral cancer examination (OCE) by their primary care provider (PCP) in medical clinics participating in a web-based education with poster reminder intervention to that of patients in control clinics. To also determine the effects for PCPs in medical clinics participating in the web-based education with poster reminder intervention as compared with those in control clinics regarding: a) index of knowledge of oral cancer risk factors (RiskOC) and b) index of knowledge of oral cancer diagnostic procedures (DiagOC).



Six medical clinics were recruited to participate in this study and randomly assigned to an intervention group or a control group. PCPs (physicians, physician assistants, and advanced practice registered nurses) took a pretest; 2 weeks later, they participated in the web-based educational program, including a posttest (intervention group) or took a posttest only (control group). In each clinic, 1 week following completion of the PCPs' posttests, 94 patients were recruited to complete a one-page survey.



The intervention clinics were found to be a significant factor for the PCPs to perform patient OCEs, after controlling for significant covariates, that is, age, main reason for clinic visit, OCE for patient in the past year, clinic's mean DiagOC score, and clinic's mean RiskOC score. The intervention also resulted in the PCPs increasing their pretest to posttest RiskOC scores.



The use of intervention has the potential to increase PCPs' short-term knowledge and to increase the frequency of PCPs' routine, nonsymptomatic opportunistic OCE on patients.
Dental Service, VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System and Department of Prosthodontics, Creighton University School of Dentistry, Omaha, NE, USA.
Alvin G
AG
Wee
Lincoln Division, College of Nursing, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Lincoln, NE, USA.
Lani M
LM
Zimmerman
Frontier Science and Technology Research Foundation, Inc., Madison, WI, USA.
James R
JR
Anderson
Department of Periodontics, Creighton University School of Dentistry, Omaha, NE, USA.
Martha E
ME
Nunn
Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology, College of Medicine, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA.
Fausto R
FR
Loberiza
Department of Family Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA.
Michael A
MA
Sitorius
Department of Community-Based Health, College of Nursing, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA.
Carol H
CH
Pullen
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009329:Nebraska; D011320:Primary Health Care
medical education; oral cancer; screening; web-based education