TY  - JOUR
AU  - Agarwal, Anish K
AU  - Ali, Zarina S
AU  - Shofer, Frances
AU  - Xiong, Ruiying
AU  - Hemmons, Jessica
AU  - Spencer, Evan
AU  - Abdel-Rahman, Dina
AU  - Sennett, Brian
AU  - Delgado, Mucio K
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/3/17
TI  - Testing Digital Methods of Patient-Reported Outcomes Data Collection: Prospective Cluster Randomized Trial to Test SMS Text Messaging and Mobile Surveys
JO  - JMIR Form Res
SP  - e31894
VL  - 6
IS  - 3
KW  - patient-reported outcomes
KW  - mobile surveys
KW  - research methods
KW  - text messaging
KW  - mobile survey
KW  - data collection
KW  - patient engagement
KW  - response rate
AB  - Background: Health care delivery continues to evolve, with an effort being made to create patient-centered care models using patient-reported outcomes (PROs) data. Collecting PROs has remained challenging and an expanding landscape of digital health offers a variety of methods to engage patients. Objective: The aim of this study is to prospectively investigate two common methods of remote PRO data collection. The study sought to compare response and engagement rates for bidirectional SMS text messaging and mobile surveys following orthopedic surgery. Methods: The study was a prospective, block randomized trial of adults undergoing elective orthopedic procedures over 6 weeks. The primary objective was to determine if the method of digital patient engagement would impact response and completion rates. The primary outcome was response rate and total completion of PRO questionnaires. Results: A total of 127 participants were block randomized into receiving a mobile survey (n=63) delivered as a hyperlink or responding to the same questions through an automated bidirectional SMS text messaging system (n=64). Gender, age, number of comorbidities, and opioid prescriptions were similar across messaging arms. Patients receiving the mobile survey were more likely to have had a knee-related surgery (n=50, 83.3% vs n=40, 62.5%; P=.02) but less likely to have had an invasive procedure (n=26, 41.3% vs n=39, 60.9%; P=.03). Overall engagement over the immediate postoperative period was similar. Prolonged engagement for patients taking opioids past postoperative day 4 was higher in the mobile survey arm at day 7 (18/19, 94.7% vs 9/16, 56.3%). Patients with more invasive procedures showed a trend toward being responsive at day 4 as compared to not responding (n=41, 59.4% vs n=24, 41.4%; P=.05). Conclusions: As mobile patient engagement becomes more common in health care, testing the various options to engage patients to gather data is crucial to inform future care and research. We found that bidirectional SMS text messaging and mobile surveys were comparable in response and engagement rates; however, mobile surveys may trend toward higher response rates over longer periods of time. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03532256; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03532256 
SN  - 2561-326X
UR  - https://formative.jmir.org/2022/3/e31894
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/31894
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35298394
DO  - 10.2196/31894
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/31894
ER  -