Trial reportBritish journal of cancer2016
A randomised trial of the effect of postal reminders on attendance for breast screening.
Trial report in British journal of cancer, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Advancing Mammographic Screening Among Underserved Groups: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Intervention Strategies to Increase Breast Cancer Screening Uptake.Public health reviews · 2025Pooled it
- Shared decision-making for supporting women's decisions about breast cancer screening.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Factors associated with attendance at screening for breast cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ open · 2021Pooled it
- Lung Screen Uptake Trial (LSUT): Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial Testing Targeted Invitation Materials.American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine · 2020Trial
- The impact of translated reminder letters and phone calls on mammography screening booking rates: Two randomised controlled trials.PloS one · 2020Trial
- Effect of second timed appointments for non-attenders of breast cancer screening in England: a randomised controlled trial.The Lancet. Oncology · 2017Trial
- Improving uptake of flexible sigmoidoscopy screening: a randomized trial of nonparticipant reminders in the English Screening Programme.Endoscopy · 2017Trial
- A Population Survey on Barriers and Facilitators to Breast Cancer Screening Based on the Theoretical Domains Framework.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Health care system and patient-related factors affecting low cancer screening participation in Poland.Preventive medicine reports · 2023Article
- Participation in lung cancer screening.Translational lung cancer research · 2021Review
- Rapid review of evaluation of interventions to improve participation in cancer screening services.Journal of medical screening · 2017Article
- GP participation in increasing uptake in a national bowel cancer screening programme: the PEARL project.British journal of cancer · 2017Article
- Poor adherence and low persistency rates for hepatocellular carcinoma surveillance in patients with chronic hepatitis B.Medicine · 2016Observational
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSome 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.
methodsWomen 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.
resultsIn 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.
conclusionsThis 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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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.