Theory Based SMS Reminders - Text's Impact on Patient Attendance

Sleep Disorders Clinical Trial

Official title:

Theory Based SMS Reminders - Text's Impact on Patient Attendance

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Not yet recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT02453633
• Other study ID #: SMS-ENT
• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• First received: May 21, 2015
• Last updated: May 22, 2015
• Start date: May 2015
• Est. completion date: August 2015

Study information

• Verified date: May 2015
• Source: Lovisenberg Diakonale Hospital
• Contact: Trude von Trepka
• Phone: +47 23226862
• Email: trvt[@]lds.no
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Health authority: Norway: Regional Ethics Commitee
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

The project will be done at the ear, nose and throat outpatient department at Lovisenberg Diakonale Hospital (LDS) in 2015-2016. About 12% of patients with appointments at the surgical outpatient clinic at LDS do not attend their appointment even after receiving both letters and shot message service (SMS) reminders. Persuasion theory suggests that the SMS reminders may be more effective if the text appeals more to the patient's feelings. The project is designed as a randomized controlled trial in which the control group receives the standard text that has neutral content and the intervention group receives a more emotion-based SMS reminder. The aim is to determine whether the more emotional text reduces the proportion of patients who do not show up for their scheduled appointment at the surgical outpatient clinic.

Description:

Studies from Norway's Health South East (HSØ) show that the number of patients who do not attend their scheduled appointments account for 200 000 to 250 000 outpatient consultations each year. For comparison, there are 270,000 patients waiting for treatment. It has thus been recommended that regional health authorities take measures to reduce the number of patients who do not attend their scheduled appointment.

This study will evaluate whether short message service (SMS) appointment reminders that appeal to the patient's emotions are more effective for reducing non-attendance to scheduled outpatient appointments at the ear, nose, and throat outpatient clinic at Lovisenberg Diakonale Hospital in Oslo, Norway. The study will be designed as randomized controlled trial in which 2000 patients are randomly assigned to either the intervention group (emotional SMS text) or the control group (standard SMS text with neutral content). Because theory suggests that emotion-based text messages will be more effective reminders, it is hypothesized that they will result in a 50% reduction in the number of patients who do not show for their appointment compared to the control group.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Enrollment: 2000
• Est. completion date: August 2015
• Est. primary completion date: August 2015
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: Both
• Age group: N/A to 80 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients (any diagnosis) with a scheduled clinic appointment at the LDS Ear, Nose and Throat Surgical Clinic or scheduled for polysomnography during the inclusion period.

• Date of birth on or after 01.01.1935

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients with 2 appointments on the same day, only the first appointment will be included.

• Patients without a phone number

• Patients born before 01.01.1935

• Included patients will not be included again if they get a new appointment in the inclusion period.

Study Design

Allocation: Randomized, Endpoint Classification: Efficacy Study, Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment, Masking: Double Blind (Subject, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor), Primary Purpose: Health Services Research

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Disease
• Hearing Disorders
• Otorhinolaryngologic Diseases
• Parasomnias
• Sleep Disorders

Intervention

Other:
• Emotional SMS text
SMS appointment reminder with the following text (translated from Norwegian): Reminder about your appointment. There are many who are waiting for treatment. Please notify us if you can not make your appointment on: Tuesday 31 March at 10:00. tel. 23225501 or send email to kirpolonh@lds.no later than one weekday prior to your appointment. No-show fee: Kr. 640. Lovisenberg Diakonale Hospital, Department of Surgery, Ear, Nose and Throat. Do not reply to this message per SMS.
• Standard SMS text
SMS appointment reminder with the following text (translated from Norwegian): Reminder of appointment at Lovisenberg Diakonale Hospital, Department of Surgery, Ear, Nose and Throat: Wednesday 11.feb 2015 at 10:00. For a change, call tel. 23225501 or send email to kirpolonh@lds.no. Do not reply to this message per SMS.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
n/a

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Lovisenberg Diakonale Hospital

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Appointment attendance	Patient attendance at their scheduled clinic appointment (yes = show up at or before the scheduled time or reschedule at least 24 hours before appointment; no=does not show up by the appointed time).	Day of scheduled appointment	No