Interventions to increase breast screening uptake: do they make any difference?

Background-Breast screening has an important role in improving survival fro m breast cancer through early detection and treatment, Increasing uptake of screening in areas of low uptake is important in improving the effectivene ss of the national screening programme. This review looks at which initiati ves to boost uptake have been successful. Objective-To evaluate the effectiveness of the different interventions to i ncrease breast screening uptake. Method-A systematic review of interventions to promote breast screening upt ake was undertaken. Studies were included if uptake was used as an outcome measure of the intervention and if relevant to the UK screening programme. Results-Twenty eight studies were found among 25 citations. Interventions w ere grouped into "person directed", "system directed", "social network dire cted", and "multistrategy" categories. Most were person directed. These int erventions were more Likely to be effective in boosting uptake, be simple i n design, and to have been evaluated by a randomised trial design. Evidence of effectiveness in the other groups is limited both by the number of stud ies and the study designs. A summary of the interventions reviewed is prese nted. Conclusions-Simple, brief, and effective interventions exist to boost breas t screening uptake. More complicated approaches are not necessarily any mor e effective. These findings also have implications for other population bas ed screening programmes of the future. In inner city areas the best approac h to raising uptake rates is likely to be multistrategy.