Ipek Gurol?Urganci|Thyra de Jongh|Vlasta Vodopivec?Jamšek|Rifat Atun|Josip Car
Mobile phone messaging reminders for attendance at healthcare appointments
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine|University of Ljubljana|Imperial College London|University of Ljubljana|Imperial College London
review update original cochrane review published july 2012 missed appointments major cause inefficiency healthcare delivery substantial monetary costs health system leading delays diagnosis appropriate treatment patients forgetfulness one main reasons missed appointments patient reminders may help reduce missed appointments modes communicating reminders appointments patients include facetoface communication postal messages calls landlines mobile phones mobile phone messaging mobile phone messaging applications short message service sms multimedia message service mms could provide important inexpensive delivery medium reminders healthcare appointmentsto update review assessing effects mobile phone messaging reminders attendance healthcare appointments secondary objectives include assessment costs health outcomes patients healthcare providers evaluation intervention perceptions safety possible harms adverse effects associated interventionoriginal searches run june 2009 update searched cochrane central register controlled trials centralthe cochrane library 2012 issue 8 medline ovidsp january 1993 august 2012 embase ovidsp january 1993 august 2012 psycinfo ovidsp january 1993 august 2012 cinahl ebscohost january 1993 august 2012 also reviewed grey literature including trial registers reference lists articlesrandomised controlled trials rcts assessing mobile phone messaging reminders healthcare appointments included studies possible assess effects mobile phone messaging independent technologies interventions two review authors independently assessed studies inclusion criteria disagreements resolved third review author study design features characteristics target populations interventions controls results data extracted two review authors confirmed third author two authors assessed risk bias included studies intervention characteristics outcome measures similar across included studies conducted metaanalysis estimate overall effect sizewe included eight randomised controlled trials involving 6615 participants four studies newly identified updatewe found moderate quality evidence seven studies 5841 participants mobile text message reminders improved rate attendance healthcare appointments compared reminders risk ratio rr 114 95 confidence interval ci 103 126 also moderate quality evidence three studies 2509 participants mobile text message reminders similar impact phone call reminders rr 099 95 ci 095 102 low quality evidence one study 291 participants suggests mobile text message reminders combined postal reminders improved rate attendance healthcare appointments compared postal reminders alone rr 110 95 ci 102 119 overall attendance appointment rates 678 reminders group 786 mobile phone messaging reminders group 803 phone call reminders group one study reported generally adverse effects study period none studies reported detail specific adverse events loss privacy data misinterpretation message delivery failure two studies reported costs per text message per attendance respectively 55 65 lower costs per phone call reminder studies included review report health outcomes peoples perceptions safety related receiving reminders text messagelow moderate quality evidence included review shows mobile phone text messaging reminders increase attendance healthcare appointments compared reminders postal reminderstext messaging reminders similar telephone reminders terms effect attendance rates cost less telephone reminders however included studies heterogeneous quality evidence therein low moderate lack information health effects adverse effects harms user evaluation intervention user perceptions safety current evidence therefore still remains insufficient conclusively inform policy decisionsthere need highquality randomised trials mobile phone messaging reminders measure patients attendance rates also focus costeffectiveness interventions health outcomes patients healthcare providers evaluation perceptions safety interventions potential harms adverse effects mobile phone messaging reminders assessed studies report message content timing relation appointment