Celette Sugg Skinner|Victor J. Strecher|Harm J. Hospers
Physicians' recommendations for mammography: do tailored messages make a difference?
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
message tailoring based individual needs circumstances commonly used enhance facetoface patient counseling recently individual tailoring become feasible printed messages study sought determine whether printed tailored recommendations addressing womens specific screening risk status perceptions breast cancer mammography effective standardized printed recommendationscomputerassisted telephone interviews conducted 435 women aged 40 65 years visited family practice groups within previous 2 years subjects randomly allocated receive individually tailored standardized mammography recommendation letters mailed physicians patients homes followup interviews conducted 8 months latertailored letter recipients likely remember read letters standardized version recipients controlling baseline status tailored letter receipt associated favorable followup mammography status women incomes 26000 black womentailored messages effective medium physicians mammography recommendations tailoring may especially important women low socioeconomic status