Timing of electronic reminders did not improve trial participant questionnaire response: a randomized trial and meta-analyses

Partha Sarathy, Prasanna; Kottam, Lucksy; Mitchell, Alex; Parker, Adwoa; Brealey, Stephen; Coleman, Elizabeth; Northgraves, Matthew; Torgerson, David; Rangan, Amar; Keding, Ada

Abstract

Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess whether timing of short messaging service (SMS) reminders improved postal questionnaire return rates from participants in a randomized controlled trial (RCT). Study Design and Setting: A Study Within A Trial (SWAT) embedded in a multicenter RCT evaluating three treatments for the frozen shoulder. Participants who provided a mobile telephone number were randomized to either prenotification SMS on the day of the questionnaire mail-out or postnotification SMS 4 days after questionnaire mail-out for the 3-month follow-up. The primary outcome was the proportion of participants who returned a valid questionnaire. A systematic review was undertaken to identify other embedded trials to perform a meta-analysis. Results: Of the 269 participants, 122/135 (90.4%) returned a valid questionnaire in the prenotification arm and 119/134 (88.8%) in the postnotification arm (difference of −1.6%; 95% CI of difference: −8.9%, 5.7%). There was no difference in time to response (HR = 1.04; 95% CI: 0.80 to 1.34) or need for additional reminders (OR = 0.71; 95% CI: 0.43 to 1.17). Meta-analysis of two RCTs showed no difference in response rates between prenotification and postnotification reminders (OR = 0.78 95% CI: 0.42 to 1.45). Conclusion: Timing of SMS reminders did not improve response rates and time to response or affect the need for additional reminders.

Citation

Partha Sarathy, P., Kottam, L., Mitchell, A., Parker, A., Brealey, S., Coleman, E., …Keding, A. (2020). Timing of electronic reminders did not improve trial participant questionnaire response: a randomized trial and meta-analyses. Journal of clinical epidemiology, 122, 70-77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2020.03.001

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 3, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Mar 6, 2020
• Publication Date: Jun 1, 2020
• Deposit Date: Mar 9, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 7, 2021
• Journal: Journal of Clinical Epidemiology
• Print ISSN: 0895-4356
• Electronic ISSN: 1878-5921
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 122
• Pages: 70-77
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2020.03.001
• Keywords: Epidemiology; Randomized controlled trial; SMS; Text message; Retention; Study within a trial; Meta-analyses
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3467171
• Publisher URL: https://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895-4356(19)30953-9/fulltext
• Related Public URLs: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0895435619309539