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A randomised trial of the effect of postal reminders on attendance for breast screening

BACKGROUND: Some women make an informed choice not to attend breast screening, whereas others may have forgotten about the appointment. We report on a randomised trial that investigates whether a reminder letter affects attendance. METHODS: Women scheduled for a breast screening appointment were ran...

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Autores principales: Allgood, Prue C, Maxwell, Anthony J, Hudson, Sue, Offman, Judith, Hutchison, Gillian, Beattie, Cathryn, Tuano-Donnelly, Raquel, Threlfall, Anthony, Summersgill, Tina, Bellis, Lesley, Robinson, Collette, Heaton, Samantha, Patnick, Julietta, Duffy, Stephen W
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5154292/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26784123
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/bjc.2015.451
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author Allgood, Prue C
Maxwell, Anthony J
Hudson, Sue
Offman, Judith
Hutchison, Gillian
Beattie, Cathryn
Tuano-Donnelly, Raquel
Threlfall, Anthony
Summersgill, Tina
Bellis, Lesley
Robinson, Collette
Heaton, Samantha
Patnick, Julietta
Duffy, Stephen W
author_facet Allgood, Prue C
Maxwell, Anthony J
Hudson, Sue
Offman, Judith
Hutchison, Gillian
Beattie, Cathryn
Tuano-Donnelly, Raquel
Threlfall, Anthony
Summersgill, Tina
Bellis, Lesley
Robinson, Collette
Heaton, Samantha
Patnick, Julietta
Duffy, Stephen W
author_sort Allgood, Prue C
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Some women make an informed choice not to attend breast screening, whereas others may have forgotten about the appointment. We report on a randomised trial that investigates whether a reminder letter affects attendance. METHODS: Women scheduled for a breast screening appointment were randomised to either receive a reminder letter a few days before their breast screening appointment in addition to the standard invitation letter (intervention) or not (control). The primary outcome was attendance within 30 days of the first offered appointment. Secondary outcomes were attendance within 90 and 180 days. RESULTS: In all, 11 383 (49.9%) women were randomised to the intervention and 11 445 (50.1%) to the control. In the intervention arm, 7759 (68.2%) attended within 30 days of the first offered appointment compared with 7349 (64.2%) in the control arm. This difference was significant (P<0.001). The odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval) for the primary end point was 1.19 (1.13–1.26). This was not significantly affected by age, socioeconomic status or type of screen (prevalent or incident). Secondary endpoint analyses supported these results. Results did differ, however, between the different centres studied. CONCLUSIONS: This study found that postal reminders increase breast screening uptake, and could be practicable to implement in the NHS Breast Screening Programme.
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spelling pubmed-51542922017-01-11 A randomised trial of the effect of postal reminders on attendance for breast screening Allgood, Prue C Maxwell, Anthony J Hudson, Sue Offman, Judith Hutchison, Gillian Beattie, Cathryn Tuano-Donnelly, Raquel Threlfall, Anthony Summersgill, Tina Bellis, Lesley Robinson, Collette Heaton, Samantha Patnick, Julietta Duffy, Stephen W Br J Cancer Clinical Study BACKGROUND: Some women make an informed choice not to attend breast screening, whereas others may have forgotten about the appointment. We report on a randomised trial that investigates whether a reminder letter affects attendance. METHODS: Women scheduled for a breast screening appointment were randomised to either receive a reminder letter a few days before their breast screening appointment in addition to the standard invitation letter (intervention) or not (control). The primary outcome was attendance within 30 days of the first offered appointment. Secondary outcomes were attendance within 90 and 180 days. RESULTS: In all, 11 383 (49.9%) women were randomised to the intervention and 11 445 (50.1%) to the control. In the intervention arm, 7759 (68.2%) attended within 30 days of the first offered appointment compared with 7349 (64.2%) in the control arm. This difference was significant (P<0.001). The odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval) for the primary end point was 1.19 (1.13–1.26). This was not significantly affected by age, socioeconomic status or type of screen (prevalent or incident). Secondary endpoint analyses supported these results. Results did differ, however, between the different centres studied. CONCLUSIONS: This study found that postal reminders increase breast screening uptake, and could be practicable to implement in the NHS Breast Screening Programme. Nature Publishing Group 2016-01-19 2016-01-19 /pmc/articles/PMC5154292/ /pubmed/26784123 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/bjc.2015.451 Text en Copyright © 2016 Cancer Research UK http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Clinical Study
Allgood, Prue C
Maxwell, Anthony J
Hudson, Sue
Offman, Judith
Hutchison, Gillian
Beattie, Cathryn
Tuano-Donnelly, Raquel
Threlfall, Anthony
Summersgill, Tina
Bellis, Lesley
Robinson, Collette
Heaton, Samantha
Patnick, Julietta
Duffy, Stephen W
A randomised trial of the effect of postal reminders on attendance for breast screening
title A randomised trial of the effect of postal reminders on attendance for breast screening
title_full A randomised trial of the effect of postal reminders on attendance for breast screening
title_fullStr A randomised trial of the effect of postal reminders on attendance for breast screening
title_full_unstemmed A randomised trial of the effect of postal reminders on attendance for breast screening
title_short A randomised trial of the effect of postal reminders on attendance for breast screening
title_sort randomised trial of the effect of postal reminders on attendance for breast screening
topic Clinical Study
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5154292/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26784123
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/bjc.2015.451
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