title: Do postal reminders increase postpartum screening of diabetes mellitus in women with gestational diabetes mellitus? A randomized controlled trial.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Women with previous gestational diabetes mellitus rarely receive the recommended 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) after delivery. We sought to determine whether postal reminders to be sent after delivery to a patient, her physician, or both would increase screening rates.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients were assigned randomly to 4 groups: reminders sent to both physician and patient, to physician but not patient, or to patient but not physician or no reminders were sent. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients who underwent an OGTT within 1 year after delivery. The secondary outcome was the performance of other postpartum screening tests.
  
  
  RESULTS
  OGTT rates were significantly increased in the physician/patient reminder group (49/81 women; 60.5%), in the patient-only reminder group (42/76 women; 55.3%), and in the physician-only reminder group (16/31 women; 51.6%) compared with the no reminder group (5/35 women; 14.3%; P < .05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Postpartum reminders greatly increased screening rates for women with gestational diabetes mellitus.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada. hclark@ottawahospital.on.ca
authors.forename: Heather D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: Ian D
authors.initials: ID
authors.lastname: Graham
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Karovitch
authors.forename: Erin J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Keely
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000175:diagnosis*; D016640:Diabetes, Gestational; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D049590:Postpartum Period; D011247:Pregnancy; D017010:Reminder Systems