Research
Adherence
SMS reminders are more cost-effective than phone call reminders while maintaining similar efficacy in improving appointment attendance rates.
Use SMS reminders for patient appointments. They are just as effective as phone calls but much cheaper and less labor-intensive for staff.
ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
They had a similar impact to phone call reminders (RR 0.99, 95% CI 0.95-1.02)... SMS reminders were more cost-effective than telephone and were equally efficacious.
Why this rating
Based on multiple systematic reviews with moderate quality evidence for attendance improvement.
Source
The Impact of mHealth Interventions: Systematic Review of Systematic Reviews
Milena Soriano Marcolino et al. · JMIR mhealth and uhealth · 2018
DOI 10.2196/mhealth.8873
Meta-analysis · 371 studiesCited 1,256×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Mobile health interventions, specifically SMS-based reminders and monitoring, significantly improve clinical outcomes and adherence in chronic disease management, including asthma, diabetes, hypertension, and heart failure.Moderate
- mHealth interventions for smoking cessation show moderate-quality evidence for increasing abstinence rates, particularly when using mobile phone-based interventions.Moderate
Related findings · Adherence
- Regular physical activity (at least 150 minutes/week of moderate-intensity) reduces all-cause and cardiovascular mortality by 20-30% and lowers the risk of type 2 diabetes by 25-35%.Strong
- Increasing physical activity from a sedentary lifestyle to an active one in middle adulthood significantly reduces the risk of coronary events compared to remaining sedentary.Strong
- Resistance exercise is the only intervention capable of consistently restoring muscle function and strength in sarcopenia, partially overcoming age-related anabolic resistance.Strong
This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →