Effect of Text Message Reminders on Attendance at Cervical Cancer Screening Appointments in a Predominantly Hispanic...

Hispanic women have the highest rates of incident cervical cancer in the United States (U.S.) and are 1.9 times more likely to die from cervical cancer than non-Hispanic Whites. Objective: Assess the impact of text message reminders on cervical cancer screening attendance and completion. Design: Pragmatic non-randomized study design using propensity matched analysis. Setting: Community-dwelling low-income females in the U.S./Mexico border community. A total of 2,255 mainly Hispanic females aged 21-65. Methods: Text message reminders in addition to usual care (telephone call reminders). Results: After adjusting for significant factors and propensity score matching, individuals in the text reminder group had 11% lower screening incidence than individuals without text reminders (risk difference [RD] = -0.11, 95% CI: -0.16, -0.05; p < .001). Conclusion: Participants with text reminders were less likely to complete cervical screening than usual practice in a predominantly Hispanic population. Our study demonstrates that reminders' content rather than method may be vital to improving our population's cancer screening rates.