Faculty Bibliography

This study assessed whether postal follow-up to a web-based physician survey improves response rates, response quality, and representativeness. We recruited primary care and gastroenterology chiefs at 125 Veterans Affairs medical facilities to complete a 10-min web-based survey on colorectal cancer screening and diagnostic practices in 2010. We compared response rates, response errors, and representativeness in the primary care and gastroenterology samples before and after adding postal follow-up. Adding postal follow-up increased response rates by 20-25 percentage points; markedly greater increases than predicted from a third e-mail reminder. In the gastroenterology sample, the mean number of response errors made by web responders (0.25) was significantly smaller than the mean number made by postal responders (2.18), and web responders provided significantly longer responses to open-ended questions. There were no significant differences in these outcomes in the primary care sample. Adequate representativeness was achieved before postal follow-up in both samples, as indicated by the lack of significant differences between web responders and the recruitment population on facility characteristics. We conclude adding postal follow-up to this web-based physician leader survey improved response rates but not response quality or representativeness.

BACKGROUND:Currently, no clinical tools use demographic and risk factor information to predict the risk of finding an adenoma in individuals undergoing colon cancer screening. Such a tool would be valuable for identifying those who would most benefit from screening colonoscopy. METHODS:We used baseline data from men and women who underwent screening colonoscopy from the randomized, multicenter National Colonoscopy Study (NCS) to develop and validate an adenoma risk model. The study, conducted at three sites in the United States (Minneapolis, MN; Seattle, WA; and Shreveport, LA) asked all participants to complete baseline questionnaires on clinical risk factors and family history. Model parameters estimated from logistic regression yielded an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROCC) used to assess prediction. RESULTS:Five hundred forty-one subjects were included in the development model, and 1,334 in the validation of the risk score. Variables in the prediction of adenoma risk for colonoscopy screening were age (likelihood ratio test for overall contribution to model, P < 0.001), male sex (P < 0.001), body mass index (P < 0.001), family history of at least one first-degree relative with colorectal cancer (P = 0.036), and smoking history (P < 0.001). The adjusted AUROCC of 0.67 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.61-0.74] for the derivation cohort was not statistically significantly different from that in the validation cohort. The adjusted AUROCC for the entire cohort was 0.64 (95% CI, 0.60-0.67). CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:We developed and validated a simple well-calibrated risk score. IMPACT/CONCLUSIONS:This tool may be useful for estimating risk of adenomas in screening eligible men and women.

BACKGROUND:The role of fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) for Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is not well-known. PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE:To assess the efficacy, comparative effectiveness, and harms of FMT for CDI. DATA SOURCES/METHODS:MEDLINE (1980 to January 2015), Cochrane Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov, followed by hand-searching references from systematic reviews and identified studies. STUDY SELECTION/METHODS:Any study of FMT to treat adult patients with CDI; case reports were only used to report harms. DATA EXTRACTION/METHODS:Data were extracted by 1 author and verified by another; 2 authors independently assessed risk of bias and strength of evidence. DATA SYNTHESIS/RESULTS:Two randomized, controlled trials (RCTs); 28 case-series studies; and 5 case reports were included. Two RCTs and 21 case-series studies (516 patients receiving FMT) reported using FMT for patients with recurrent CDI. A high proportion of treated patients had symptom resolution; however, the role of previous antimicrobials is unclear. One RCT comparing FMT with 2 control groups (n = 43) reported resolution of symptoms in 81%, 31%, and 23% of the FMT, vancomycin, or vancomycin-plus-bowel lavage groups, respectively (P < 0.001 for both control groups vs. FMT). An RCT comparing FMT route (n = 20) reported no difference between groups (60% in the nasogastric tube group and 80% in the colonoscopy group; P = 0.63). Across all studies for recurrent CDI, symptom resolution was seen in 85% of cases. In 7 case-series studies of patients with refractory CDI, symptom resolution ranged from 0% to 100%. Among 7 patients treated with FMT for initial CDI, results were mixed. LIMITATION/CONCLUSIONS:Most studies were uncontrolled case-series studies; only 2 RCTs were available for analysis. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:Fecal microbiota transplantation may have a substantial effect with few short-term adverse events for recurrent CDI. Evidence is insufficient on FMT for refractory or initial CDI treatment and on whether effects vary by donor, preparation, or delivery method. PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE/BACKGROUND:U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.