Effect of SMS reminders on Attendance Rates for Healthcare Appointments: A Systematic Review & Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Purpose: Non-attendance for healthcare appointments can adversely affect patients’ clinical outcomes as well as being costly to healthcare systems. The aim of this study is to assess the role of mobile health (mHealth) interventions in tackling this problem. Methods: A systematic review was conducted on several databases including the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, Embase and PubMed. Overall 12 articles were selected for the review. A random effects model was used to estimate an overall effect size. Results: SMS reminders significantly decreased the rate of non-attendance compared to no reminders (Risk ratio [RR] 0.77; 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 0.71, 0.84) with moderate heterogeneity (I2=32%) between studies. A funnel plot indicated no evidence of reporting bias. Conclusions: SMS reminders significantly improve healthcare attendance rates across a wide range of clinical and socioeconomic settings. Utilization of SMS reminders are a cheap and effective method of improving patient attendance rates.