• Olufisayo O Elugbadebo, Akinsola A Ojagbemi, and Oye Gureje.
• Department of Psychiatry, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
• Afr Health Sci. 2023 Dec 1; 23 (4): 551562551-562.

BackgroundHalf of older Africans drop out of treatment after a single contact with biomedical mental health services.ObjectiveThis study examined the effect of introducing a mobile phone reminder intervention delivered by volunteering health staff to reduce dropout from an outpatient mental health service for older people in Nigeria.Methods405 patients were studied using a quasi-experimental design: 169 who attended clinic pre-intervention (2016-2017) and 236 who attended during intervention (2018-2019). We estimated annual dropout rates, reasons for dropout and predictors of drop-out.ResultsWe found a trend for decreasing dropout rates during intervention (p<0.001). The most common reasons for dropout were distance to the clinic (19.5%) and unavailability of a caregiver (47.6%). Current single status (O.R =2.02, 95% C. I=1.02-3.99) and treatment without adjunctive pharmacotherapy (O. R=2.14, 95% CI; 1.07-4.26) predicted dropout.ConclusionMobile phone call reminders improved treatment engagement in this population. Findings are important for policy to improve access to mental healthcare in Africa.© 2023 Elugbadebo O et al.

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