Stepwise Strategy to Improve CANcer Screening Adherence: Cervical Cancer

This study aims to assess the effectiveness of a stepwise approach, with increasing complexity and cost, to improve adherence to organized cervical cancer screening: step 1a - customized text message invitation; step 1b - customized automatic phone call invitation; step 2 - secretary phone call; step 3 - health professionals face-to-face appointment. A population-based randomized controlled trial will be implemented in Portuguese urban and rural areas. Women eligible for cervical cancer screening will be randomized (1:1) to intervention and control. In the intervention group, women will be invited for screening through text messages, automatic phone calls, manual phone calls and health professional appointments, to be applied sequentially to participants remaining non-adherent after each step. Control will be the standard of care (invitation by written letter). As primary objectives, we intend to test the superiority of interventions based on step 1 (1a+1b) and multistage interventions based on steps 1 and 2 and steps 1 to 3, based on intention-to-treat analyses.