JULY 2014
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Preventive
Screening for Adults
 During
the past few months, you could turn on your TV, radio or computer and see and
hear messages about the importance of making an appointment for a health
physical. It’s at those physicals that health care providers complete or
recommend many types of important health screenings – blood pressure and blood
sugar checks, mammograms and colonoscopies, even assessments of your risk for
falling and getting hurt. These messages created by the Section of Chronic
Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (CDPHP) will soon make it to private
and public health clinics when a new set of print materials are distributed
statewide.
These
efforts support the section’s strategic objective to increase the percentage of
adults who report having obtained selected screenings. These screening services
are a critical component in the clinical preventive services that have been
shown to reduce the burden of illness, death and disability. In 2012, the Alaska
Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Collaborative’s Preventive
Screening Task Force[1] selected the 10 tests that are now the focus of this objective. Because these
tests identify people who at are high risk and/or need treatment for tobacco
use, obesity, heart disease or stroke, diabetes, cancer and falls, work toward
this objective has engaged staff associated with many CDPHP programs,
especially heart disease/stroke, comprehensive cancer control and diabetes.
The CDPHP screening workgroup[2] received training in social marketing and designed a campaign focused on adults 45 years of age or older with an emphasis on state employees. The focus of the screening message became encouraging people to get an annual physical, when health care providers have the time to discuss which screenings are needed. Outreach to health care providers is also planned to encourage them to follow through with their patients.
Understanding
the target population’s motives and attitudes and identifying its barriers to
the desired behavior is what sets social marketing apart from other health
education strategies. The screening workgroup added questions to the Alaska Survey (telephone) and conducted focus groups to investigate these
issues. A gap analysis was done to learn about provider perceptions regarding
facilitators and barriers to preventive screenings. Later, the workgroup tested specific messages
during individual interviews.
Based
on these results, the CDPHP screening workgroup adopted ‘Get Screened: Take Charge of Your Health. Take Charge of Your Life.’
as the key message, and produced one TV spot and two radio spots last winter. The
broadcasts started in February 2014 and ended June 30. The workgroup added
questions to the June Alaska Survey
to assess the impact of these broadcast media messages (results pending).
These are the print materials developed for this campaign:
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1. a
bi-fold that contains a verbal description of the recommended tests and, on the
inside, a table with information for interpreting the results of the tests;
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2. a
rack-card that has a table with the recommended tests by age, sex, and interval
for the recommendations;
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3. an
11 x 17 poster with the test recommendations;
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4. five,
two-sided sheets describing coverage for the recommended tests by the health
plans that cover most state employees, Medicare, and plans provided under the Affordable
Care Act preventive services. There also is a provider resource chart
that brings together links about the tests, links to assessment and community
referral resources, and links to patient education materials.
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The
distribution plan will include sending these materials to private primary care
providers, community health centers, public health centers, tribal clinics and
health fairs along with ideas about how they might be shared with patients. They
are also on the State of Alaska Screening
- Safe and Healthy Me website.
To request copies, please contact hss.cdphp@alaska.gov
or call 907-269-2020.
Although
these activities have happened too recently to have a measurable impact, this
work is aligned with other initiatives that are making a difference. The Behavioral
Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) collects information related to six of
the screening tests on the CDPHP recommended list. Based on the 2012 BRFSS, the
percentage of Alaskans who reported obtaining colorectal cancer screening (one of
the six tests) has already increased by 5%. There has been movement toward our targets
for the percentage of Alaskans (of appropriate age and sex) screened for
cervical cancer (Pap smear), tobacco use, breast cancer (mammography) and
cholesterol. We lost ground on blood
sugar screening. The BRFSS did not ask
about the remaining tests (blood pressure, obesity, falls, and aspirin assessment).
A
number of initiatives work to increase the percentage of adults who get specific
tests on CDPHP’s recommended list. These include the Alaska
Colorectal Cancer Partnership; the
Alaska
Breast and Cervical Health Partnership (find us
on Facebook);
Mission 100,
which is sponsored by the Tobacco Prevention and Control Program; the Diabetes
Prevention Committee, facilitated by the Diabetes Prevention and Control
Program (contact Gail Stolz, gail.stolz@alaska.gov
or 269-8034 for more information); and the Falls Prevention Project, sponsored
by the Injury Prevention Program.
In addition, tribal diabetes programs and federally qualified health centers
are required to select and implement quality improvement initiatives every
year; these may focus on a CDPHP recommended screening, or another target.
The
next step for the CDPHP screening workgroup is to continue to use the social
marketing approach to facilitate interactions with private primary care
providers. We are particularly interested in identifying effective one- and
two-way communication channels. We hope this next phase will provide a
foundation for developing partnerships within this critical component in the
Alaska health care system.
Citations
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The CDPHP Preventive Screening Task Force is a committee of the
Collaborative. Partner members include: Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center
(Dr. Heidi Baines); Providence Family Practice (Dr. Jacqueline Serrano); ANTHC
(Dr. Paul Davis); BCHC Medical Advisor (Dr. Jan Whitefield); Mountain Pacific
Quality Improvement Organization (Ann Lovejoy); Alaska Primary Care Association
(Marie Jackman); Breast and Cervical Health Check (Cheley Grigsby).
- Includes Janice Gray with Heart Disease/Stroke, Julia Thorsness with
Comprehensive Cancer Control, and Gail Stolz, with Worksite Health Promotion,
with technical assistance and direction from Ann Potempa.
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