Outreach efforts increase mammography rates
Outreach efforts increase mammography rates
Personalized phone outreach efforts, consisting of a reminder, counseling, and scheduling, were highly effective in encouraging mammography, according to a recent study conducted on Philadelphia women by the Prudential Center for Health Care Research.
"This study indicates that a multicomponent phone intervention is effective in promoting mammography in managed health care plan members," says Ester Nash, MD, senior medical director of Prudential Healthcare in the greater Philadelphia metropolitan area. Nash and her colleagues saw a 17% increase in their mammography rates which they attribute largely to the personalized phone outreach to Prudential members.
The study was conducted among 395 women who were members of a Prudential Healthcare HMO in order to determine which of the three methods was most effective in increasing mammography rates:
• a birthday card reminder only (the standard method);
• a personalized letter from the medical director and material promoting mammography;
• a multicomponent phone call incorporating a reminder, counseling, and a scheduling of appointments. An additional goal was to determine whether the interventions were more or less effective depending upon a woman’s readiness to get a mammogram, as measured by stage of change. As published in the July issue of the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, key findings from the study are as follows:
• Twenty-eight percent of women who received the telephone intervention were most likely to obtain a mammogram.
• Fifteen percent of women who received the birthday card only obtained a mammogram, while only 9% of women who received the mailed intervention had a mammogram.
• Women were classified in three groups to evaluate their readiness to obtain a mammogram, or "stage of change." These were pre-contemplators, contemplators, and preparers. Of the nearly half of the women who were "contemplators," women who received the phone intervention were 3.6 times more likely to obtain a mammogram than women who received the card only.
"Although mammography use is increasing, most women still do not obtain regular mammograms," says Nancy Davis, MPH, lead author on the study and senior health care analyst at the Prudential Center for Health Care Research. "The purpose of our study was to identify effective intervention methods for encouraging women in a managed health care plan to receive their regular mammograms."
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