Telephone interventions in adherence to receiving the Pap test report: a randomized clinical trial.
Ana Izabel Oliveira Nicolau, Thaís Marques Lima, Camila Teixeira Moreira Vasconcelos and 3 others
PMID 29211194WHAT IT FOUND
A nurse phone call one week before the Pap result visit made more women return: 93.5% with reminder, 91.8% with education, versus 66.9% with usual care.
Key findings
01A nurse telephone reminder one week before the scheduled result visit, in addition to usual care, was associated with 93.5% return for the Pap report, compared with 66.9% in usual care.
02A motivational educational telephone call one week before the scheduled result visit, in addition to usual care, was associated with 91.8% return, compared with 66.9% in usual care.
03The reminder and educational calls had similar return rates, 93.5% and 91.8%, with no statistically significant difference.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study included only women aged 18 or older, so it does not show what would happen for adolescents. Only women with a phone and without conditions affecting mental processes, speech, or hearing were included, so it does not apply to people who cannot be reached or cannot take part in a phone call. 20 of 542 women could not be contacted by phone, so the results are for women reachable by phone. Return was assessed within a period of up to 65 days, and reports after that were counted as non-return. The study was done in one service in Fortaleza, Brazil, with nurses trained separately for the trial, so other services may not get the same result. The trial measured return for the Pap report, not whether women received follow-up care after the report.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the higher return rates as proof that cervical cancer outcomes improved. The trial measured only whether women returned to receive the Pap test report.