Electronic reminders (ID RET7)
Evidence Summary
What is it?
As opposed to the usual follow-up, participants receive an email or text message reminder.
Does it work?
Electronic reminders compared to usual follow‐up may result in little or no difference to retention.
How big is the effect?
An increase of 1% (95% confidence interval = -4% to 6%).
How certain are we?
GRADE Low certainty.
Recommendation
We recommend that trialists consider using electronic reminders, possibly in combination with usual follow-up.
How can I use this straight away?
See Resource bundle below for details on how to use electronic reminders.
Practical Impact
Imagine initial retention is 65% of those approached. You have a trial with 100 participants that needs responses from 80 to meet its statistical power calculations. Retention of 65% means that you will be 15 responses short (see chart below).
Now imagine using electronic reminders. The chart below shows the impact of an absolute increase of 1% (95% CI = -4% to 6%). Retention is now 66%, which means our best estimate is that you would now only be 14 responses short.
Cumulative Meta-Analysis*
Resource Bundle
How to Cite
More Information
- This summary is from the Cochrane review of strategies to improve retention in randomised trials (https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.MR000032.pub3/full).
- The ‘Does it work?’ statement is structured according to effect size and GRADE certainty as per GRADE Guidelines 26 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2019.10.014). The statement is for trivial effect size and Low GRADE certainty.
- The recommendation statement is the consensus view of the authors of this summary based on the GRADE certainty and features of the trials contributing to the evidence.
- If you have any questions contact info@trialforge.org.
