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Text message intervention improves birth control adherence

Women who received text-message appointment reminders were more likely to receive their scheduled Depo-Provera injections, compared with women who only received phone call reminders, according to a recently published study in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

DepoText is a text messaging reminder system for communicating sexual health messages, according to the study. The system relays a series of messages to patients starting 72 hours prior their scheduled appointment time. Additionally, DepoText relays messages regarding screening and prevention for STI’s, healthy lifestyle choices and reminders to call their nurse with any problems they may have.

Maria Trent

“Our findings suggest that text messaging can help overcome some issues that teens struggle with and pose challenges for the clinicians caring for them, such as keeping clinical appointments, adhering to a tight treatment schedule and regularly taking prescription medications. Results from our study support the notion that clinicians caring for teens should consider capitalizing on this mode of communication for their outreach,” Maria Trent, MD, MPH, department of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, said in a press release.

To assess the efficacy of DepoText, researcher’s randomized 100 women using Depo-Provera (Medroxyprogesterone acetate, Pharmacia and Upjohn), aged 13 to 21 years, to receive either text message appointment reminders or phone call appointment reminders. The majority of patients were black (96%) and from low-income single-parent households. The researchers followed up with patients for three injection cycles.

Overall, there was a 76% response rate to messages regarding attending an appointment and a 68% response rate to informational messages.

Among all participants, 87% completed their first Depo-Provera injection, 77% completed their second and 69% completed their third, and final injection. Patients in the DepoText group were more likely to return on time for their first and second appointment, compared with the call group. No difference was seen between either group for the third appointment visit.

While no difference was seen in the second or third visits, patients in the DepoText group returned closer to their scheduled appointments for their first visit compared with the control group (P = .03). 

“Use of technology for person-based communication may further improve the effectiveness of [moderately long-acting reversible contraceptives], given the high efficacy rate with perfect use. Using a text-messaging intervention with adolescents managing contraception would enable provision of self-management reminders, serve as a source of empowerment for adolescents to better self-manage, and provide the desired privacy for managing reproductive health issues,” Trent and colleagues wrote. – by Casey Hower

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.