Recruitment methods for screening programmes: trial of an improved method within a regional osteoporosis study.

Non-attendance for health care is a common and expensive problem.'-3 Ideally, a recruitment method should combine high compliance (the proportion of invited patients who attend) with a high attendance rate (the proportion of appointment slots used or slot coverage rate). We have suggested that a recruitment method combining open invitations with confirmable reminders achieves this.3 We compared this suggestion with a standard appointment method4 within a regional programme for osteoporosis.