The use of postal reminders to reduce non-attendance at an orthodontic clinic: a randomised controlled trial

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the effect of issuing a patient reminder plus a confirmation slip on the attendance of orthodontic new patients.

Setting: Department of Orthodontics, University Dental Hospital of Manchester.

Design: A randomised controlled trial.

Methods: New patients were randomly allocated to:receive a reminder letter and return a confirmation slip ornot receive a reminder.

Outcome measures: Patient attendance at the clinic.

Results: A total of 232 patients were entered into the study between June 18, 2001 and August 29, 2001. These were randomly allocated to 115 (49.8%) in the reminder group and 116 (50.2%) in the no reminder group. If the patient received a reminder and returned the confirmation they were less likely to fail the appointment than if they did not receive a reminder (OR 0.4, 95% CI 0.2 to 0.96) There was an effect of social deprivation, if the patients lived in an area of high social deprivation they were 2.7 (95% CI 1.1 to 6.5) times more likely to fail to attend an appointment than people who were more affluent.

Conclusions: The use of postal reminders for orthodontic consultation appointments appears to result in a useful increase of appointments that are kept or cancelled in advance.