Telephone reminders improve adolescent clinic attendance: a randomized controlled trial

Telephone reminders improve adolescent clinic attendance: a randomized controlled trial

Sawyer SM; Zalan A; Bond LM

Journal Of Paediatrics And Child Health

2002

Female; Humans; Male; Victoria; adolescent; Adolescent Transitions; Telephone; Ambulatory Care Facilities/statistics & numerical data/utilization; Appointments and Schedules; Reminder Systems

OBJECTIVES: To measure the effect of telephone reminders on adolescent clinic attendance. METHODS: Clinic bookings of adolescents were randomly assigned to either a telephone reminder one day prior to their appointment, or a routine booking (no reminder). The setting was four general adolescent health clinics within a tertiary public adolescent health care service at the Centre for Adolescent Health. The main outcome measures were clinic non-attendance, reason for non-attendance, and satisfaction with the booking system. RESULTS: One hundred and seventy one adolescent appointments were studied. Of these, 51.5% were female, and 25% of bookings were for new, rather than review appointments. One hundred and one adolescents were randomly allocated to the reminder group, of whom 87% were contacted. The use of reminders (intention to treat analysis) significantly reduced the non-attendance rate from 20% to 8% (odds ratio 0.35; P = 0.03). Non-attendance was three times more likely for a new appointment than for review appointments. 'Forgetting' was the most common explanation given by patients (35%) who did not attend. Seventy-nine per cent of parents reported telephone reminders were helpful at prompting attendance. CONCLUSION: Telephone reminders greatly improved attendance at these adolescent clinics. The background non-attendance rate and the proportion of high-risk patients for non-attendance (new appointments in this setting) will determine whether reminders are more efficiently targeted at specific bookings than used routinely.

2002

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