title: Assessing the effectiveness of text messages as appointment reminders in a pediatric dental setting.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Text messaging is a dominant form of communication in our society. However, little research has been conducted to evaluate its effectiveness as an appointment reminder in the dental setting.
  
  
  METHODS
  From the patient pool of the pediatric dentistry clinic at the University of Washington, Seattle, the authors invited 543 caregiver/child dyads who met eligibility criteria to participate in this study. They randomly assigned 318 pairs (59 percent response) to receive a short message service (SMS) text message (n = 158) or a voice message (control group) (n = 160) as an appointment reminder.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Younger caregivers were more likely to be nonattendees than were older caregivers (P = .02). Participants in the voice message group had a lower no-show attendance (8.2 percent) than did those in the text message group (17.7 percent) (P = .01). The unadjusted odds ratio (OR) for type of appointment reminder and no-show attendance was 2.41 (P = .01). After the authors adjusted for the caregiver's age, the OR was 2.12 (P = .04).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  SMS text messages were not as effective as voice reminders for patients in a dental school pediatric dentistry clinic. Future studies should investigate the effect of text message reminders when limited to patients who self-select that type of reminder and in patient populations outside the university setting.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Text messaging may not be the preferable method of reminding patients about appointments in a university pediatric dental clinic.
authors: Department of Pediatric Dentistry, University of Washington, 1959 N.E. Pacific St., Box 357136, Health Sciences Center B-242, Seattle, WA 98195-7136, USA. tmnelson@uw.edu
authors: Travis M
authors: TM
authors: Nelson
authors: Joel H
authors: JH
authors: Berg
authors: Janice F
authors: JF
authors: Bell
authors: Penelope J
authors: PJ
authors: Leggott
authors: Ana Lucia
authors: AL
authors: Seminario
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D017028:Caregivers; D040421:Cell Phone; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003740:Dental Clinics; D005006:Ethnicity; D005220:Fathers; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007347:Insurance, Dental; D008297:Male; D008484:Medicaid; D009035:Mothers; D010377:Pediatric Dentistry; D011203:Poverty; D017010:Reminder Systems; D013689:Telephone; D014481:United States; D014861:Washington; D055815:Young Adult