title: Do personalised letters in Vietnamese increase cervical cancer screening among Vietnamese women?
abstract: In Australia, Vietnamese women are at greater risk of cervical cancer than other Australian women. To increase their participation in cervical screening, the Vietnamese community was exposed to a media campaign about the advantages of cervical smear screening which was delivered in Vietnamese through Vietnamese newspapers and radio. In addition, 689 Vietnamese (18-67 years) were selected from the electoral roll. They were randomly assigned to either receive a personal letter written in Vietnamese promoting cervical screening, or not. We report on the effect of the letter on smear rates. Being randomised to be sent such a letter was not associated with any increase in screening (relative rate of appropriate screening in the intervention versus the control group was 0.85, 95% CI 0.55-1.3). It is important to carefully evaluate untested health promotion interventions.
authors.affiliation: Centre for General Practice, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Queensland. c.delmar@mailbox.uq.edu.au
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Del Mar
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Glasziou
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Adkins
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hua
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brown
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001315:Australia; D015709:Correspondence as Topic; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D014626:Vaginal Smears / Q000706:statistics & numerical data