• Kwok Chi Leong, Wei Seng Chen, Kok Weng Leong, Ismail Mastura, Omar Mimi, Mohd Amin Sheikh, Abu Hassan Zailinawati, Chirk Jenn Ng, Kai Lit Phua, and Cheong Lieng Teng.
• Department of Family Medicine, International Medical University Puchong, Jalan Rasah, Malaysia. leongk@pc.jaring.my
• Fam Pract. 2006 Dec 1;23(6):699-705.

BackgroundNon-attendance is common in primary care and previous studies have reported that reminders were useful in reducing broken appointments.ObjectiveTo determine the effectiveness of a text messaging reminder in improving attendance in primary care.DesignMulticentre three-arm randomized controlled trial.SettingSeven primary care clinics in Malaysia. Participants. Patients (or their caregivers) who required follow-up at the clinics between 48 hours and 3 months from the recruitment date. Interventions. Two intervention arms consisted of text messaging and mobile phone reminders 24-48 hours prior to scheduled appointments. Control group did not receive any intervention. Outcome measures. Attendance rates and costs of interventions.ResultsA total of 993 participants were eligible for analysis. Attendance rates of control, text messaging and mobile phone reminder groups were 48.1, 59.0 and 59.6%, respectively. The attendance rate of the text messaging reminder group was significantly higher compared with that of the control group (odds ratio 1.59, 95% confidence interval 1.17 to 2.17, P = 0.005). There was no statistically significant difference in attendance rates between text messaging and mobile phone reminder groups. The cost of text messaging reminder (RM 0.45 per attendance) was lower than mobile phone reminder (RM 0.82 per attendance).ConclusionsText messaging reminder system was effective in improving attendance rate in primary care. It was more cost-effective compared with the mobile phone reminder.

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