Clinical trial NCT05317884: Email-based Reminders Promoting Recommended Pediatric Preventative Visits
Official title: Evaluation of Email-based Reminders in Promoting Adherence to the Recommended Pediatric Preventative-visit Schedule Among Rural Patients
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Immunization Programs
Keywords: Pediatrics
Reminder Systems
Preventive Medicine
Child Health
Appointments and Schedules
Lead sponsor: Geisinger Clinic
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2022-04-08
Enrollment: 1186
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: No reminder group vs. reminder group
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: The purpose of this study is to assess, prospectively, the effect of email reminders for well-child check (WCC) visits on adherence to these visits among those who have not yet scheduled the visit. The investigators hypothesize that sending reminders will increase scheduling WCC visits, attending WCC visits, and being up to date for the child's required immunizations beyond what occurs in the absence of these reminders.

Detailed description: Regular attendance at recommended WCC visits is associated with having up-to-date immunizations. Standard care involves scheduling a follow-up WCC visit at the end of the current visit. However, if the child's parents do not choose to schedule a follow-up visit at that time or miss a WCC visit, they may not be offered another easy opportunity to schedule one. That is, they would have to remember to schedule a visit and contact the clinic proactively.

In this study, 30 days before a child is due for their WCC visit, parents who have not yet scheduled a WCC visit for up to 30 days (for 5-month-olds) or 60 days (for all other ages) after their child is due for a visit will be randomly assigned to two groups with a random number generator. One group will receive an email reminder, while the other group will not receive any reminder.

The randomization of participants to different conditions will be in place until 800 participants have been identified and randomly assigned to one of the arms (estimated sample to detect at least a 10% absolute difference) or 180 days, whichever comes first. To account for delays in updating clinical databases, the final outcome data will be checked 90 days after the last eligible visit (for a maximum study period of 270 days).

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Parents (or contact on record) of children aged 5, 8, 11, 14, or 17 months
* No WCC visits scheduled 30 days after the child's monthly birthday (for 5 month-olds) or 60 days (for all other ages) ahead of their due date for a WCC (i.e., month 6, 9, 12, 15, or 18)
* Has an email address on record
* Child is currently seen in Pediatric clinics under the Geisinger umbrella (has at least one prior visit)

Exclusion Criteria:

* Did not opt out of emails

Primary outcomes:
measure: WCC visit scheduled
timeFrame: 30-60 days from the email send date
Secondary outcomes:
measure: WCC visit made
timeFrame: 30-60 days from the email send date
measure: Immunization status
timeFrame: 60 days from the email send date
Other outcomes:
measure: Emails opened
timeFrame: 60 days from the email send date
measure: Follow-up WCC visit scheduled
timeFrame: 61-150 days from the email send date
measure: Measles, Mumps, and Rubella immunization status
timeFrame: 60 days from the email send date
measure: Hepatitis A immunization status
timeFrame: 60 days from the email send date
measure: Hepatitis B immunization status
timeFrame: 60 days from the email send date
measure: Varicella immunization status
timeFrame: 60 days from the email send date
Locations:
city: Danville
country: United States
facility: Geisinger
state: Pennsylvania
Study officials:
affiliation: Program Director, Behavioral Insights Team
name: Amir Goren, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: