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Assessing the effectiveness of text messages as appointment reminders in a pediatric dental setting
Travis M Nelson1, Joel H Berg, Janice F Bell
1Department of Pediatric Dentistry, University of Washington, 1959 N.E. Pacific St., Box 357136, Health Sciences Center B-242, Seattle, WA 98195-7136, USA. tmnelson@uw.edu
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.
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