The feasibility of using SMS as a health survey tool: An exploratory study in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Novel and Emerging Strategies for Longitudinal Data Collection

“…However, the costs were much lower for the SMS method (US$3.13-US$4.31) versus the face-to-face meeting (US$5.39-US$5.47). The participant response rates using SMS were lower in this particular study compared to face-to-face meeting; however, this method appears to be cost effective and other studies have reported higher participant response rates using SMS in longitudinal data collection, such as the Lee et al (2013) study previously discussed.…”

“…Lee et al () assessed the feasibility of using SMS in a study with 85 participants diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. They found that research participants were receptive to completing surveys for longitudinal data collection via two‐way SMS and had relatively high participant response rates based on the length of the survey (Lee et al., ).…”

“…Several of the participants who did not complete the survey provided the following reasons for not fully answering the survey, such as the participants were not aware that they did not answer all the questions, the survey had too many questions, and the questions were sent too rapidly via SMS. Furthermore, the average administration cost per survey was US$0.26, which is 51% lower than the cost of postal mailing, proving the SMS strategy to be very cost‐effective (Lee et al., ). Ultimately, this study by Lee et al demonstrated that two‐way SMS messaging is a feasible method to conduct longitudinal data collection due to the high response rates; however, improvements such as sending out SMS patient reminders and reducing the length of the survey should be considered to obtain higher participant response rates and completed surveys.…”

“…Based on these clinical advantages of SMS, researchers are beginning to incorporate this method into longitudinal data collection; however, implementing SMS as a two-way method for longitudinal data collection is rather novel. Lee et al (2013) assessed the feasibility of using SMS in a study with 85 participants diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. They found that research participants were receptive to completing surveys for longitudinal data collection via two-way SMS and had relatively high participant response rates based on the length of the survey (Lee et al, 2013).…”

Governance Strategies for Conducting Text Messaging Interventions in Clinical Research

“…The broad acceptance of mobile phone usage 1 coupled with the national adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) has provided the opportunity for using text messaging as a widespread and low-cost tool for patient engagement. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] As short messaging service (SMS) systems and patient-owned devices exist outside the traditional clinical practice environments, clinical research that tests the health impacts of interventions using personally owned technology must address two sets of regulations related to patient privacy and health system regulatory requirements: the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA, HIPAA Privacy Rule) and human subjects' research requirements. Effective stewardship of personal information and patientprovider communication through text messages or other forms of personally owned technology remains an evolving landscape of unclear boundaries of information ownership, indemnity, and policy adherence.…”