title: Increasing attendance in a cervical cancer screening programme by personal invitation: experience of a Lithuanian primary health care centre.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  High participation rates are an essential component of an effective screening programme and many approaches were introduced as being successful for enhancing compliance to screening guidelines. The aim of this study was to evaluate to which extent a personal invitation by mail increases the rate of attendance in a cervical cancer screening programme in a primary health care centre.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was carried out as a pilot project to gain insight into feasibility of applying a well-known compliance increasing measure in Lithuanian population. The study included a sample of women registered at the primary health care centre in Panevėžys who had not participated in the cervical cancer screening programme for six and more years. Personal registered invitation letters to attend the primary health care centre for a Pap smear were sent out to 1789 women by mail.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In total, 2195 women were tested during 2011 at the primary health care centre. 487 (22.2%) of them attended the screening programme after receiving a personal invitation letter. Response rate for attending screening after receiving a personal invitation letter was 27.3%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study demonstrated that personal invitation letters addressed to long-term non-attendees could markedly increase participation in cervical cancer screening in Lithuania.
authors.affiliation: Vilnius University Hospital Santariškių Klinikos, Centre of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Vilnius, Lithuania.
authors.forename: Rūta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kurtinaitienė
authors.affiliation: UAB Patologijos diagnostika, Vilnius, Lithuania.
authors.forename: Jolita
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rimienė
authors.affiliation: Vilnius City Clinical Hospital, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Vilnius, Lithuania.
authors.forename: Ingrida
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Labanauskaitė
authors.affiliation: National Cancer Institute, Cancer Control and Prevention Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania.
authors.forename: Nadežda
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lipunova
authors.affiliation: National Cancer Institute, Laboratory of Cancer Epidemiology, Vilnius, Lithuania.
authors.forename: Giedrė
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Smailytė
keywords: Pap smear; attendance; cervical cancer screening