How to stage messages
How to stage messages
Read these personalized mammography letters
The computer program that researchers at Brown University School of Medicine in Providence, RI, developed for a breast cancer screening project pulls information from a 400-paragraph library. Each woman receives a personalized letter with paragraphs appropriate to a her stage of readiness to establish and maintain a regular schedule of mammography screening.
Each woman's "stage" of readiness is based on her responses to a tool administered by trained interviewers, says Beverly Ehrich, MPH, project director of the Mammography Education Partnership, Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research at Brown.
Here are some sample paragraphs women may have received based on their stage of readiness. (For more on the mammography project, see p. 107. For resources on staging, see p. 96.)
"Maintenance: Women who have stayed on a mammography schedule have a lot to say. You might be interested in some of their comments.
· 'I am firmly convinced that a mammogram could save my life some day. Why would I give up something that gives me peace of mind?'
· 'A mammogram is just like any other yearly check-up. It doesn't do much good to have the test once and then quit. I'm going to stick with it.'
"Action: Women like you who recently have had this important test have a lot to say about their experiences. Perhaps you are feeling like these women.
· 'Before I had the mammogram, I kept thinking about how long the whole test would take. I was surprised that the X-ray didn't take forever! I've promised myself that I won't put off making my appointment for the next one.'
· 'I never believed my doctor when she told me that a mammogram wasn't all that painful. I was wrong. Sure, it was a bit uncomfortable, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. Now I won't dread the next one.'
"Relapse risk: Although you have had a mammogram before, you did not seem interested in having another one in the next year or so. Perhaps you have had some of the same questions as other women who weren't sure about getting another mammogram.
· 'Why should I go back after I had a bad experience? I said I would never go back again. But my doctor is really pushing me because of my age. She also suggested that I talk to the technologist beforehand and tell her what happened.'
· 'I kept asking myself, why go though the embarrassment? Then a friend asked me if I thought it would be any less embarrassing to go through breast cancer. She got me thinking.'
· 'Don't put it off. It only makes the situation worse. Procrastination made me feel awful. Stick to your schedule and you'll feel better.'"
"General letters or brochures that give a basic message about the importance of routine mammography don't work," Ehrich says. "What works is understanding a woman's readiness to adopt behavior and then targeting the messages to her readiness. If you give the wrong message at the wrong time, it's not effective."
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