title: Text-messaging to reduce missed appointment in a youth clinic: a randomised controlled trial.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To assess the effectiveness of text-messages in reducing the proportion of non-attendance in a youth clinic of a University Hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients who registered for an appointment and provided a mobile phone number were randomly selected to receive or not a text-message reminder before the planned appointment. A 10% reduction in the proportion of missed appointments was considered clinically and economically useful and the study was powered accordingly.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The proportion of missed appointments was 16.4% (95% CI 13.1% to 19.8%) in the text-message group (N 462) and 20.0% (95% CI 16.6% to 23.4%) in the control group (N 529), showing no significant effect of the intervention (p=0.346).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In our primary care youth clinic, text-message reminders are not effective in reducing the proportion of missed appointments. This may in part be due to the fact that most patients are referred by a professional or by their parents and do not initiate appointments themselves.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent, Adolescent & Young Adult Program, Geneva University Hospitals and Geneva University, , Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Françoise
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Narring
authors.forename: Noëlle
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Junod Perron
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dominicé Dao
authors.forename: Nadia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Camparini Righini
authors.forename: Jean-Paul
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Humair
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Broers
authors.forename: Jean-Michel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Gaspoz
authors.forename: Dagmar M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Haller
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010349:Patient Compliance; D017010:Reminder Systems; D013557:Switzerland; D060145:Text Messaging; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Adolescents CG; General Practice; Randomised Trials