Text message reminders got more people to their appointments than no reminders.

The review

1. 01

   Who took part

   The eight studies had 6,615 people with booked appointments in Australia, China, Scotland, England, Kenya and Malaysia. Most were adults, and one eye clinic study had children and their parents.

2. 02

   What they did

   Each study sent people a text reminder about a booked appointment, usually one to three days before. The other group got no reminder in seven studies, a letter in one and a phone call in three.

3. 03

   What happened

   Overall, about 79 in 100 people came to their appointment with texts, against 68 in 100 with no reminder. Compared with phone calls, texts got about the same number of people to their appointments. Two studies found texts cost less per attendance than phone calls.

What the review found

1. Helped

   Text message reminders got more people to their appointments than no reminders did.

   • Rule: Get a remindertested

   Pooled analysis of 7 studies with 5,841 people · vs people who got no reminder · behaviour was recorded · the authors rated their certainty moderate · ⚠ the studies disagreed a lot

2. No difference

   Text reminders got about as many people to appointments as phone calls did.

   • Rule: Get a reminderused

   Pooled analysis of 3 studies with 2,509 people · vs people who got phone call reminders · behaviour was recorded · the authors rated their certainty moderate

Source