Avtor/Urednik     Car, Josip; Gurol-Urganci, Ipek; de Jong, Thyra; Vodopivec-Jamšek, Vlasta; Atun, Rifat
Naslov     Mobile phone messaging reminders for attendance at healthcare appointments
Tip     članek
Vir     Cochrane Database Syst Rev Online
Vol. in št.     , št. 7
Leto izdaje     2012
Obseg     str. 1-38, CD007458
Jezik     eng
Abstrakt     Background: Missed appointments are a major cause of inefficiency in healthcare delivery, with substantial monetary costs for the health system, leading to delays in diagnosis and appropriate treatment. Patients' forgetfulness is one of the main reasons for missed appointments, and reminders may help alleviate this problem. Modes of communicating reminders for appointments to patients include face-to-face communication, postal messages, calls to landlines or mobile phones, and mobile phone messaging. Mobile phone messaging applications such as Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Message Service (MMS) could provide an important, inexpensive delivery medium for reminders for healthcare appointments. Objectives: To assess the effects of mobile phone messaging reminders for attendance at healthcare appointments. Secondary objectives include assessment of patients' and healthcare providers' evaluation of the intervention; costs; and possible risks and harms associated with the intervention. Search methods: We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL,The Cochrane Library 2009, Issue 2), MEDLINE (OvidSP) (January 1993 to June 2009), EMBASE (OvidSP) (January 1993 to June 2009), PsycINFO (OvidSP) (January 1993 to June 2009), CINAHL (EbscoHOST) (January 1993 to June 2009), LILACS (January 1993 to June 2009) and African Health Anthology (January 1993 to June 2009). We also reviewed grey literature (including trial registers) and reference lists of articles. Selection criteria: We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs), quasi-randomised controlled trials (QRCTs), controlled before-after (CBA) studies, or interrupted time series (ITS) studies with at least three time points before and after the intervention. We included studies assessing mobile phone messaging as reminders for healthcare appointments. (Abstract truncated at 2000 characters)
Deskriptorji     HEALTH SERVICES
APPOINTMENTS AND SCHEDULES
TELEPHONE
COMPUTER COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIALS