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Cervical Screening Reminders for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women in Primary Care—Randomised Controlled Trial of Letter vs. Phone/SMS Reminders

(1) Background: Aboriginal women have a higher mortality from cervical cancer, yet cervical screening rates are lower than for other Australian women. (2) Methods: A randomised controlled trial of reminder letter vs. phone call/SMS for routine cervical screening testing in an Aboriginal Community Co...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ivers, Rowena, Levett, Trish, Wynn, Kyla
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10341188/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37444104
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20136257
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author Ivers, Rowena
Levett, Trish
Wynn, Kyla
author_facet Ivers, Rowena
Levett, Trish
Wynn, Kyla
author_sort Ivers, Rowena
collection PubMed
description (1) Background: Aboriginal women have a higher mortality from cervical cancer, yet cervical screening rates are lower than for other Australian women. (2) Methods: A randomised controlled trial of reminder letter vs. phone call/SMS for routine cervical screening testing in an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation in NSW. (3) Results: 256 women aged between 25 and 74 who were due for cervical screening were randomised to receive a reminder letter (and up to two further letters for non-responders) or a phone call (followed by up to two SMS) to attend the screening. A total of 15 women (12.5%) attended for cervical screening test within 3 months following a letter, and 24 women (17.6%) after a phone call/SMS reminder; this difference was not significant (p = 0.252). Time spent on sending letters vs. phone calls/SMS was similar; the cost was lowest for SMS. (4) Conclusion: Response to reminders was lower than expected. While there was no significant difference in effectiveness in letter vs. phone call/SMS for cervical screening recalls, reminder systems, including opportunistic reminders, can play a role in encouraging women to participate in screening programs in conjunction with national screening registers. The choice of reminder type should be left to service and consumer preference.
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spelling pubmed-103411882023-07-14 Cervical Screening Reminders for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women in Primary Care—Randomised Controlled Trial of Letter vs. Phone/SMS Reminders Ivers, Rowena Levett, Trish Wynn, Kyla Int J Environ Res Public Health Article (1) Background: Aboriginal women have a higher mortality from cervical cancer, yet cervical screening rates are lower than for other Australian women. (2) Methods: A randomised controlled trial of reminder letter vs. phone call/SMS for routine cervical screening testing in an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation in NSW. (3) Results: 256 women aged between 25 and 74 who were due for cervical screening were randomised to receive a reminder letter (and up to two further letters for non-responders) or a phone call (followed by up to two SMS) to attend the screening. A total of 15 women (12.5%) attended for cervical screening test within 3 months following a letter, and 24 women (17.6%) after a phone call/SMS reminder; this difference was not significant (p = 0.252). Time spent on sending letters vs. phone calls/SMS was similar; the cost was lowest for SMS. (4) Conclusion: Response to reminders was lower than expected. While there was no significant difference in effectiveness in letter vs. phone call/SMS for cervical screening recalls, reminder systems, including opportunistic reminders, can play a role in encouraging women to participate in screening programs in conjunction with national screening registers. The choice of reminder type should be left to service and consumer preference. MDPI 2023-06-29 /pmc/articles/PMC10341188/ /pubmed/37444104 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20136257 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Ivers, Rowena
Levett, Trish
Wynn, Kyla
Cervical Screening Reminders for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women in Primary Care—Randomised Controlled Trial of Letter vs. Phone/SMS Reminders
title Cervical Screening Reminders for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women in Primary Care—Randomised Controlled Trial of Letter vs. Phone/SMS Reminders
title_full Cervical Screening Reminders for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women in Primary Care—Randomised Controlled Trial of Letter vs. Phone/SMS Reminders
title_fullStr Cervical Screening Reminders for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women in Primary Care—Randomised Controlled Trial of Letter vs. Phone/SMS Reminders
title_full_unstemmed Cervical Screening Reminders for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women in Primary Care—Randomised Controlled Trial of Letter vs. Phone/SMS Reminders
title_short Cervical Screening Reminders for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women in Primary Care—Randomised Controlled Trial of Letter vs. Phone/SMS Reminders
title_sort cervical screening reminders for aboriginal and torres strait islander women in primary care—randomised controlled trial of letter vs. phone/sms reminders
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10341188/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37444104
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20136257
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