The Impact of Text Messaging to Promote Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) Completion in Orthopedic Practice:...

Area of Science:

• Clinical Informatics
• Health Services Research
• Patient Reported Outcome Measures

Background:

• Achieving high response rates for Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) surveys in clinical settings is challenging but crucial for operational and clinical insights.
• PROMs are vital for evaluating patient experiences and surgical outcomes, yet low participation rates can limit data generalizability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the impact of text message reminders on improving response rates for PROMs surveys administered via email during routine hip or knee replacement care.
• To determine if text message reminders influence response bias or affect key outcome measures in surgical patients.

Main Methods:

• Initial non-responders to email-based PROMs surveys for hip or knee replacement surgery were randomized into two groups.
• One group received text message reminders at 7 and 12 days post-initial contact, while the control group did not.
• Survey response rates and potential response bias were analyzed between the two groups.

Main Results:

• By day 7, the overall survey response rate reached 63%.
• Model-derived estimates indicated significantly higher survey return rates in the text message reminder group (51.1%) compared to the no-text group (34.5%).
• The positive effect of text reminders on response rates was consistent across different subpopulations, with no observed differences in key outcomes, suggesting no impact on response bias.

Conclusions:

• Text message reminders are an effective and efficient strategy to increase PROMs survey response rates in patients undergoing hip or knee replacement surgery.
• The low cost associated with text messaging makes it a practical tool for enhancing data collection in routine clinical care.
• This method improves data completeness without compromising the validity of outcome measures or introducing bias.