Table 1.
Characteristics of women eligible for cervical cancer screening by reminder letter type from 2003–2012 in Washington state*
| Up-to-date with screening N (Col %) |
Overdue for screening N (Col %) |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pap letter | Birthday letter | Pap letter | Birthday letter | |||||
| N=30,474 | N=67,409 | N=42,141 | N=32,809 | |||||
| Age | ||||||||
| 21–30 | 2445 | (8.0) | 7557 | (11.2) | 6208 | (14.7) | 5059 | (15.4) |
| 31–40 | 5606 | (18.4) | 13688 | (20.3) | 6656 | (15.8) | 4818 | (14.7) |
| 41–50 | 9570 | (31.4) | 17471 | (25.9) | 12755 | (30.3) | 7908 | (24.1) |
| 51–64 | 12853 | (42.2) | 28693 | (42.6) | 16522 | (39.2) | 15024 | (45.8) |
| Preventive care waiver | ||||||||
| Yes | 22348 | (73.3) | 52387 | (77.7) | 30327 | (72) | 28000 | (85.3) |
| No | 8126 | (26.7) | 15022 | (22.3) | 11814 | (28) | 4809 | (14.7) |
| Deductible ≥$500 annually | ||||||||
| Yes | 3210 | (10.5) | 10914 | (16.2) | 4576 | (10.9) | 7220 | (22) |
| No | 27264 | (89.5) | 56495 | (83.8) | 37565 | (89.1) | 25589 | (78) |
| Race | ||||||||
| Non-white | 4785 | (15.7) | 13242 | (19.6) | 6013 | (14.3) | 6015 | (18.3) |
| White | 22078 | (72.4) | 49257 | (73.1) | 25334 | (60.1) | 21481 | (65.5) |
| Unknown | 3611 | (11.8) | 4910 | (7.3) | 10794 | (25.6) | 5313 | (16.2) |
| Education | ||||||||
| <=High School | 2536 | (8.3) | 5374 | (8) | 2610 | (6.2) | 1703 | (5.2) |
| Some College | 6345 | (20.8) | 12912 | (19.2) | 5665 | (13.4) | 3911 | (11.9) |
| College Graduate | 4885 | (16) | 11452 | (17) | 3590 | (8.5) | 3053 | (9.3) |
| Post-College | 5466 | (17.9) | 11728 | (17.4) | 3520 | (8.4) | 2607 | (7.9) |
| Unknown | 11242 | (36.9) | 25943 | (38.5) | 26756 | (63.5) | 21535 | (65.6) |
| BMI in kg/m2 | ||||||||
| <25 | 9481 | (31.1) | 25807 | (38.3) | 7845 | (18.6) | 8937 | (27.2) |
| 25–29.9 | 6933 | (22.8) | 18896 | (28) | 6463 | (15.3) | 7078 | (21.6) |
| 30–34.9 | 3982 | (13.1) | 10967 | (16.3) | 4412 | (10.5) | 5049 | (15.4) |
| 35+ | 3978 | (13.1) | 10974 | (16.3) | 5329 | (12.6) | 6763 | (20.6) |
| Unknown | 6100 | (20.0) | 765 | (1.1) | 18092 | (42.9) | 4982 | (15.2) |
| Charlson score | ||||||||
| 0 | 26295 | (86.3) | 57293 | (85) | 36868 | (87.5) | 27950 | (85.2) |
| 1 | 2953 | (9.7) | 6824 | (10.1) | 3570 | (8.5) | 2996 | (9.1) |
| 2 | 868 | (2.8) | 2227 | (3.3) | 1176 | (2.8) | 1161 | (3.5) |
| 3+ | 358 | (1.2) | 1065 | (1.6) | 527 | (1.3) | 702 | (2.1) |
| # of primary care visits in past 12 months | ||||||||
| 0 | 9246 | (30.3) | 18275 | (27.1) | 19703 | (46.8) | 17286 | (52.7) |
| 1 | 7868 | (25.8) | 19320 | (28.7) | 9173 | (21.8) | 7562 | (23.0) |
| 2+ | 13360 | (43.8) | 29814 | (44.2) | 13265 | (31.5) | 7961 | (24.3) |
| # of preventive care visits in past 12 months | ||||||||
| 0 | 27665 | (90.8) | 52205 | (77.4) | 40979 | (97.2) | 31658 | (96.5) |
| 1+ | 2809 | (9.2) | 15204 | (22.6) | 1162 | (3.1) | 1151 | (3.5) |
| # of OBGYN visits in past 12 months | ||||||||
| 0 | 29604 | (97.1) | 60429 | (89.6) | 42057 | (99.8) | 32645 | (99.5) |
| 1+ | 870 | (2.8) | 6980 | (10.4) | 84 | (0.2) | 164 | (0.5) |
| Year letter received | ||||||||
| 2003 | 7118 | (23.4) | 6628 | (15.7) | ||||
| 2004 | 6049 | (19.8) | 13563 | (32.2) | ||||
| 2005 | 7012 | (23) | 11712 | (27.8) | ||||
| 2006 | 8772 | (28.8) | 9002 | (21.4) | ||||
| 2007 | 1523 | (5.0) | 1236 | (2.9) | ||||
| 2009 | 36724 | (54.5) | 6217 | (18.9) | ||||
| 2010 | 15731 | (23.3) | 6746 | (20.6) | ||||
| 2011 | 12981 | (19.3) | 13297 | (40.5) | ||||
| 2012 | 1973 | (2.9) | 6549 | (20.0) | ||||
| Number of services recommended in birthday letter | ||||||||
| 1–2 | 33984 | (50.4) | 15422 | (47.0) | ||||
| 3–5 | 30050 | (44.6) | 15212 | (46.4) | ||||
| 6–7 | 3375 | (5.0) | 2175 | (6.6) | ||||
*
p-values from Chi-square tests comparing characteristics between Pap letters and birthday letters were <0.0001 for every characteristic within both the up-to-date and overdue columns.