RECRUITMENT OF WOMEN BY GPS FOR PAP TESTS - A METAANALYSIS

General practitioners (GPs) have a pivotal role to play in recruiting women for Pap tests. In recent times, considerable attention has been paid to the role of reminder systems in encouraging women to have regu lar Pap tests. Although a number of studies have investigated the effe ctiveness of reminder systems, there has been no comprehensive review. This paper aims to determine the effectiveness of patient and GP remi nders in increasing the proportion of women screened for cervical canc er. Two electronic databases were searched for English-language random ized controlled trials conducted in a general practice or family medic ine setting, and examining the effectiveness of GP and patient reminde rs in increasing the proportion of women screened for cervical cancer. Ten trials were identified, and meta-analytic techniques were employe d to analyse the data from these trials. The women whose GPs had been prompted to remind them to have a Pap test were significantly more lik ely to do so than were control women (typical risk difference (TRD) = 6.6%, 95% CI = 5.2%-8.0%). The typical risk difference for the patient reminder studies was 4.9% (95% CI = 2.6%-7.2%). In both cases, sensit ivity analysis revealed that one study stood out as an exceptional res ult The omission of this study induced homogeneity among the remaining studies. Once this study was removed, the TRDs for the GP reminder an d patient reminder studies were 7.9% (95% CI = 6.5%-9.4%) and 10.8% (9 5% CI = 8.1%-13.6%), respectively. The results strongly suggest that G Ps should make use of GP and patient reminder systems.