Telephone interventions for adherence to colpocytological examination.
Thais Marques Lima, Ana Izabel Oliveira Nicolau, Francisco Herlânio Costa Carvalho and 3 others
PMID 28177055WHAT IT FOUND
For nurses, a brief telephone reminder plus scheduling was associated with higher cervical screening attendance than a longer educational call, but both included scheduling and neither improved attitudes.
Key findings
01A behavioral telephone reminder plus scheduling produced 66.8% appropriate examination practice, compared with 57.5% in the educational telephone intervention plus scheduling group, with p = 0.031.
02Both groups changed from 100% inappropriate practice before to appropriate attendance after, with p < 0.0001 for each group.
03The educational call increased appropriate knowledge from 29.8% to 39.1% (p = 0.0283), while the reminder call changed from 32.8% to 35.4% (p = 0.056).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
There was no group that received only scheduling or no call, so the telephone intervention effect cannot be separated from scheduling the examination. Attendance was measured at the scheduled visit, not after a year, so the study does not show whether periodic screening was maintained. The study was done in one healthcare unit in Brazil with women who had phone numbers in records, so it may not apply to women without reliable phone access or to other settings. The educational call improved knowledge but neither call improved attitude, so fear, shame, time and scheduling barriers were not fully addressed.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that the telephone call alone caused screening attendance. Every woman in both groups also had the examination scheduled, and there was no no-call comparison group. Also, attendance was measured only at the scheduled visit, not after a year.