Ietje Perfors

144 Chapter 6 Results In total, 396 patients were invited for participation by their treating physician or nurse in the hospital (Figure 1). Of these, 165 (42%) patients declined participation,mostly because of “toomuch of a burden shortly after diagnosis” (n=89) or “no extra support needed” (n=58). Sixty patients did not meet the eligibility criteria. Main reasons were: “patient already started therapy” (n=24), “GP worked outside the study area” (n= 18) and “patient received palliative treatment” (n=8). As a result, 154 patients were randomised to either the intervention (n=77) or the control group (n=77). These 154 patients were registered with 119 different GPs, from79 different primary care practices. Information about the timing of the completion of the T3 and T5 questionnaires is provided in the supplementary files (Appendix A). The study population had a mean age of 61 (SD ±11.9) years. The majority was female (75%) and had either breast (51%) or colorectal (25%) cancer. At baseline, the two study groups were comparable, except for the presence of comorbidity, which was higher in the intervention group (68%) compared to the control group (49%) (Table 1). During the trial 18 (23%) patients did not complete the T5 questionnaires in the intervention group and 8 (10%) in the control group (Figure 1). Characteristics of the analysed patients and the patients who dropped out did not differ (p>0.05, Appendix A). Compliance with the GRIP intervention Of the 77 intervention patients 62 (81%) patients had a TOC. 11 However, only 18% (n=11) of these were scheduled according to the protocol, i.e., between diagnosis and treatment decision. 11 Of the patients in the intervention group, 52 (68%) had at least one contact with the HON. Reasons for not having HON contact were: no wish for HON involvement for 13 patients (17% of patients in the intervention group) or no need for additional care providers for 5 patients (7%) (Figure 1). Of the patients who had HON contact, 62% (n=32) had three or more contact moments. The HON care was discontinued by 11 patients (18%) at their own request, after