Assessing the effectiveness of text messages as appointment reminders in a pediatric dental setting

作者：Nelson Travis M^*; Berg Joel H; Bell Janice F; Leggott Penelope J; Seminario Ana Lucia

来源：Journal of the American Dental Association, 2011, 142(4): 397-405.

• Telephone
• pediatric dentistry
• short message service text
• practice management
• technology
• appointment reminder

Background. Text messaging is a dominant form of communication in our society However, little research has been conducted to evaluate its effectiveness as an appointment reminder in the dental setting.
Methods. From the patient pool of the pediatric dentistry clinic at the University of Washington, Seattle, the authors invited 543 caregiver/child dyads who met eligibility criteria to participate in this study. They randomly assigned 318 pairs (59 percent response) to receive a short message service (SMS) text message (n = 158) or a voice message (control group) (n = 160) as an appointment reminder.
Results. Younger caregivers were more likely to be nonattendees than were older caregivers (P = .02). Participants in the voice message group had a lower no-show attendance (8.2 percent) than did those in the text message group (17.7 percent) (P = .01). The unadjusted odds ratio (OR) for type of appointment reminder and no-show attendance was 2.41 (P = .01). After the authors adjusted for the caregiver's age, the OR was 2.12 (P = .04).
Conclusions. SMS text messages were not as effective as voice reminders for patients in a dental school pediatric dentistry clinic. Future studies should investigate the effect of text message reminders when limited to patients who self-select that type of reminder and in patient populations outside the university setting. Clinical Implications. Text messaging may not be the preferable method of reminding patients about appointments in a university pediatric dental clinic.

• 出版日期2011-4