Use of SMSs to Improve Attendance to Cervical Cancer Follow-up Screening

Text Messages to Increase Attendance to Follow-up Cervical Cancer Screening Appointments Among HPV Positive Tanzanian Women (Connected2Care)

This study evaluates the effect of the SMS intervention 'Connected2Care' on the attendance rate to cervical cancer screening follow-up appointments.

Connected2Care is a non-blinded, multicentre, parallel-group, randomised controlled trial. Tanzanian Women testing positive to HR HPV at inclusion are randomly assigned in an allocation ratio of 1:1 to the SMS intervention or the control group (standard care). In a period of 10 months, the intervention group will receive 15 one-directional health educative text messages and SMS-reminders for their appointment. The total sample size will be 700 with 350 women in each study arm. Primary outcome is attendance rate for follow-up. Secondary objectives are cost-effectiveness measured through incremental ratios and knowledge of cervical cancer by a 16-item true/false scale questionnaire at baseline and follow-up.

The SMS intervention will consist of 15 text messages that will be sent to the intervention group over a period of 10 months. There will be two types of text messages: (1) educational text messages; and (2) SMS reminders for the follow-up appointment.

The control group will receive standard care, which is a follow-up appointment at 14 months written on an appointment card.

10 health educative SMSs' sent once a month 5 SMS-reminders for follow-up appointment sent on days -14, -7, -1 pre- follow-up appointment, and +1, +7 post follow-up appointment

The effect measure of the intervention is the 14-month follow-up attendance rate for HPV positive women. The number of women in the intervention group that attend follow-up screening will be compared to the the number of women that attend follow-up screening in the control group.

Inclusion Criteria: Informed consent HPV positive Age 25 - 60 years Private mobile phone Exclusion Criteria: Pregnant on day of enrolment Menstruating on day of enrolment Hysterectomy Diagnosed with cervical pre-cancer within past 12 months Diagnosed with cervical cancer Invalid mobile phone number Unreachable when trying to convey HPV positive result

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