We very much hope the rest of the country implements this revolutionary behavioural approach as soon as possible. Our study suggests that messages endorsed by a person's GP can be effective at increasing cervical screening uptake, but also that a simple reminder can be as good as or better than many other type of messages that we studied.
We're delighted that our findings have already been implemented in a successful pilot campaign in London, which we hope will be extended so that more women can benefit from cervical screening, which we know saves lives. In order to make the most of the impact that SMS reminders can have on uptake, it will be important for services to have up-to-date phone numbers for their patients.
Sending a text message reminder can lead to more women taking up cervical screening, new research has shown.