Can Digital Nudging Get More Women to Participate in Cervical Screening?

Abstract

Cervical screening can radically reduce the incidence of cervical cancer. It is one of the few cancers that can be prevented due to screening. The Cervical Screening Program in Norway, therefore, recommends all women between the ages of 25-69 to participate in screening. Yet, approximately 250,000 women have not done so in the last ten years. This study explores whether digital nudging can get more women to participate in cervical screening. Based on theory from persuasive technology and dig- ital nudging five persuasive messages were designed. These messages were presented to a representative sample for cervical screening through a survey to investigate how they were perceived. A total of 280 responses were solicited. Findings show that dig- ital nudging in the form of persuasive messages can be effective to get more women to participate in cervical screening. However, some messages were more effective than others. The text message with the highest potential to get women to participate in screening, of those who were tested, was a message with a scheduled appointment. 87% of all the respondents answered that it is desirable to receive an invitation to cer- vical screening through a text message.