PERSONAL CONTACT FROM FRIENDS TO INCREASE MAMMOGRAPHY USAGE

To increase the use of mammography among women 40 years of age and old er, the American Cancer Society (ACS) designed a telephone interventio n strategy (the ''Tell A Friend'' program) that relied on ACS voluntee rs. During a half-day training session, each volunteer provided a list of 10 women she was willing to contact over a 6-month period and enco urage to have a mammogram. Each list was randomized, and five names we re returned to each volunteer for inclusion in the intervention. The o ther women served as controls and were not contacted by the volunteers . All women were subsequently interviewed at the end of the interventi on period. Forty-nine percent of the women in the intervention group ( n = 289) had received their most recent mammogram since the start of t he intervention period, whereas 34% of control women (n = 305) receive d mammograms during the same time period (p less-than-or-equal-to .001 , rate ratio = 1.4, 95% confidence interval = 1.2, 1.7). The effective ness of the intervention remained after controlling for demographic ch aracteristics. The strategy was effective for both black and white wom en of all ages, but principally among women with annual household inco mes of less than $40,000. We conclude that a telephone intervention st rategy of personal contacts between acquainted women can significantly increase mammography use, particularly among women with low-to-modera te income.