• Françoise Narring, Noëlle Junod Perron, Dominicé Dao Melissa M, Camparini Righini Nadia N, Jean-Paul Humair, Barbara Broers, Jean-Michel Gaspoz, and Dagmar M Haller.
• Department of Child and Adolescent, Adolescent & Young Adult Program, Geneva University Hospitals and Geneva University, , Geneva, Switzerland.
• J Epidemiol Community Health. 2013 Oct 1; 67 (10): 888-91.

BackgroundTo assess the effectiveness of text-messages in reducing the proportion of non-attendance in a youth clinic of a University Hospital.MethodsPatients 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.ResultsThe 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).ConclusionsIn 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.

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