Text-Based Intervention Increases Mammography Uptake at an Urban Safety-Net Hospital

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Services Research
• Oncology

Background:

• Low mammography rates at safety-net hospitals (SNH) correlate with advanced-stage cancer diagnoses.
• Previous phone-based interventions improved mammography uptake but were resource-intensive.
• This study evaluated a text-based intervention as a scalable alternative.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the effectiveness of a text-based intervention in increasing mammography uptake.
• To compare a text reminder and scheduling intervention against usual care in an urban SNH population.
• To determine if text-based scheduling options influence mammography compliance.

Main Methods:

• A randomized controlled trial involving 1277 women aged 50-65 overdue for mammograms.
• Participants were assigned to receive text reminders with specific scheduling, text reminders with open scheduling, or usual care.
• Mammography uptake at 3 months was compared between groups using chi-square tests.

Main Results:

• Text-based interventions significantly increased mammography uptake compared to usual care (10.2% vs 6.2%).
• 10.3% of intervention participants scheduled mammograms via text, with 63% completing the screening.
• Mammography compliance was not significantly different between specific and general text scheduling options.

Conclusions:

• Two-way text messaging reminders and scheduling effectively boost mammography uptake in urban safety-net settings.
• Text-based interventions represent a viable technological strategy to enhance breast cancer screening.
• This method can be integrated into multi-tiered strategies for improving cancer screening in underserved populations.