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The Effectiveness of SMS Reminders on Appointment Attendance: a Meta-Analysis

  • Systems-Level Quality Improvement
  • Published:
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Abstract

To identify the efficacy of short message service (SMS) reminders in health care appointment attendance. A systematic review was undertaken to identify studies published between 2005 and 2015 that compared the attendance rates of patients receiving SMS reminders compared to patients not receiving a reminder. Each article was examined for information regarding the study design, sample size, population demographics and intervention methods. A meta-analysis was used to calculate a pooled estimate odds ratio. Twenty-eight (28) studies were included in the review, including 13 (46 %) randomized controlled trials. The pooled odds ratio of the randomized control trials was 1.62 (1.35–1.94). Half of the studies reviewed sent the reminder within 48 h prior to the appointment time, yet no significant subgroups differences with respect to participant age, SMS timing, rate or type, setting or specialty was detectable. All studies, except one with a small sample size, demonstrated a positive OR, indicating SMS reminders were an effective means of improving appointment attendance. There was no significant difference in OR when controlling for when the SMS was sent, the frequency of the reminders or the content of the reminder. SMS appointment reminders are an effective and operative method in improving appointment attendance in a health care setting and this effectiveness has improved over the past 5 years. Further research is required to identify the optimal SMS reminder timing and frequency, specifically in relation to the length of time since the appointment.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the prior work of Rebecca Guy and colleagues that informed the design of this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. General Medicine, Central Coast Local Health District, Gosford, NSW, Australia

    Nasim Boksmati

  2. Health Information Management, Australian Institute of Health Service Management, Tasmanian School of Business and Economics, University of Tasmania, Locked Bag 1317, Launceston, TAS, 7250, Australia

    Kerryn Butler-Henderson

  3. School of Pharmacy, Curtin University, Bentley, WA, Australia

    Kevin Anderson

  4. Information Security Discipline, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Tony Sahama

Authors
  1. Nasim Boksmati
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  2. Kerryn Butler-Henderson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kerryn Butler-Henderson.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

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Ethical approval was not required for this research.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Systems-Level Quality Improvement

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Table 4 Standardised data collection form (used in MS Excel)
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Boksmati, N., Butler-Henderson, K., Anderson, K. et al. The Effectiveness of SMS Reminders on Appointment Attendance: a Meta-Analysis. J Med Syst 40, 90 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-016-0452-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-016-0452-2

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