Invitation to cervical cancer screening does increase participation in Germany: Results from the MARZY study
The effect of different invitation models on participation in cervical cancer screening (CCS) was investigated in a randomized population-based cohort study in Germany. Participants were randomly selected via population registries and randomized into intervention Arm A (invitation letter) and Arm B (invitation letter and information brochure) or control Arm C (no invitation). The intervention and control arms were compared with regard to 3-year participation and the two invitation models were compared between intervention arms. Of the 7,758 eligible women aged 30-65 years, living in the city of Mainz and in the rural region of Mainz-Bingen, 5,265 were included in the analysis. Differences i…
Evaluation of the methodological quality of articles on autologous breast reconstruction
Abstract Background Breast cancer remains the most common cancer among women worldwide. Autologous breast reconstruction may contribute toward restoring body image and improving quality of life after mastectomy. This systematic literature review describes differences in the quality and type of studies investigating autologous breast reconstruction techniques over time. Methods MEDLINE was searched for articles related to the surgical techniques, namely, TRAM, LADO, DIEP, and SGAP/IGAP, for the periods 1970 to 2007 and 2008 to 2010. The quality and type of studies were compared across the two time periods. Full-texts were evaluated according to prespecified quality criteria. Results The MEDL…
Probability of hysterectomy in Germany
Introduction Hysterectomy is the most common gynecological surgery in many industrialized countries. In Germany, the hysterectomy rate is high in comparison to other European countries. The aim of this analysis was to determine the distribution of age at hysterectomy as well as the age-specific probability of undergoing a hysterectomy between the ages of 0–64 in the German female population. Methods Analyses were based on data from the MARZY study, a prospective, randomized, population-based cohort study investigating early detection of cervical cancer in western Germany. At baseline, 6429 women were invited to attend cervical cancer screening. The distribution of age at hysterectomy as wel…