Do postal reminders increase postpartum screening of diabetes mellitus in women with gestational diabetes mellitus? A randomized controlled trial.
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.
Clark
Heather D
HD
Department of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada. hclark@ottawahospital.on.ca
Graham
Ian D
ID
Karovitch
Alan
A
Keely
Erin J
EJ
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