Mailed Kits Beat Office Visits for Cervical Cancer Screening

Mailed self-collection kits and a telephone reminder helped increase cervical cancer screening (CCS) rates more than twice as much as telephone reminders for an office visit, according to new data from a randomized clinical trial in a safety-net population. The home kits paired with additional patient contact increased numbers even further.

In a trial that included 2474 people overdue for CCS (94% of them from minority populations), participants randomized to a telephone reminder with a mailed self-collection kit had 41.1% participation compared to those with a phone reminder to come in for an office visit (17.4%). CCS rates were modestly higher (46.6%) when people received contact in addition to the telephone reminder and mailed self-collection kit for testing human papillomavirus