Population, intervention components and outcomes of the included studies considering reminder/recall interventions targeted at patients or clients.
| References | First author and year | Population | Vaccine(s) | Inequality | Sample Size (intervention) | Intervention components | Intervention description | Outcome (effect measures and/or 95% CI) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Identification of those not UTD* | Text message(s) | Letter(s) to home | Telephone call(s) | Outreach (eg, home visit) | ||||||||
| 70 | Kempe et al, 2013 | Children aged 19–35 months | Schedule | Urban/rural, not UTD | 55 173 | Y | – | Y | – | – | Practices participating received financial assistance. Up to three notifications sent. | Increase in chances of becoming UTD if population based reminder system used (relative risk 1.23, CI 1.10 to 1.37) |
| 71 | Kempe et al, 2015 | Children aged 19–35 months | Schedule | Urban/rural, not UTD | 18 235 | Y | Y | Y | – | Centralised reminder system involved either telephone and letters or letters alone. The practice-based system was variable at practice level, but involved calls or letters or both. | Increase in children being UTD by 2.5% (p<0.001) using the centralised system (adj OR 1.31, CI 1.16 to 1.48) | |
| 72 | Atchison et al, 2013 | Children under 5 years | Schedule | Urban, low income, ethnicity | 32 practices | Y | – | Y | Y | Y | Escalating intervention comprising two letters, followed by a telephone call or home visit if no response. | Significant increase in proportion UTD in the intervention group, but as a result of unexplained decreases in the non-intervention group. |
| 73 | Dombkowski et al, 2014 | Children under 20 months | Schedule | Urban, not UTD | 10 175 | Y | – | Y | – | – | Recall notices issued at 7 and 19 months, with a reminder notice at 12 months. | No difference in children at 7 or 12 months, but a significant difference of 7% (p<0.0001)| at 19 months. |
| 74 | Lemstra et al, 2011 | Children not UTD with MMR at 24 months | MMR | Deprivation, low income | 629 | Y | – | – | Y | Y | Home visits targeted as a separate intervention in low-income areas. | Significant increase in intervention areas (rate ratio 1.10, CI 1.08 to 1.12). Increase in home visit areas, but not significant due to small numbers. |
| 75 | Cushon et al, 2012 | Children aged 14–20 months | MMR | Deprivation, low-income | 24 540 | Y | – | Y | Y | Y | Identification of children not UTD, five telephone calls, letter home and then home visitation. | Increases observed in across all study sites, including low-income areas. No significant difference observed in intervention sites, disparities remained. |
| 76 | Stockwell et al, 2012 A | Children aged 7–22 months | Hib | Urban, low income | 174 | Y | Y | Y | – | – | Repeated reminders delivered five times until vaccination status registered as UTD. | Non-significant difference, possibly due to small sample size (n=174) |
| 77 | Hofstetter et al, 2015 A | Children aged 9.5–10.5 months. | MMR | Urban, low income, ethnicity | 2054 | – | Y | – | – | – | Participants either received reminders to schedule a vaccination appointment and then an appointment reminder; appointment reminder only; or usual care. | No difference between arms except in children with no vaccination appointment booked, who received scheduling and appointment reminders (relative risk ratio 1.11, CI 1.00 to 1.24) |
| 78 | Abbott et al, 2013 | Aboriginal children from birth to 20 months | Schedule | Ethnicity | 505 | – | – | – | – | – | Reminder calendar given to parents | Significant increase in vaccinations being given on time, once outliers were excluded. |
| 76 | Stockwell et al, 2012 A | Adolescents aged 11–18 | Td, Men4 | Urban, low income, ethnicity | 361 (195) | Y | Y | – | – | – | Repeated reminders delivered five times until vaccination status registered as UTD. | Significantly more adolescents in the intervention arm received missing vaccines at 4, 12 and 24 weeks (eg, at 12 weeks 26.7% vs 13.9% in controls, 12.8% difference CI 4.7% to 20.9%, p=0.003). |
| 79 | Kharbanda et al, 2011 | Adolescent girls aged 9–20 | HPV (doses 2 and 3) | Urban | 124 | Y | Y | – | – | – | Up to three weekly reminders that child due for an HPV dose. | Intervention individuals were more likely than controls, contemporaneous (adjusted OR 2.03, CI 1.29 to 3.22 p=0.003) and historical (AOR 1.83, CI 1.23 to 2.71, p=0.002) to receive next HPV dose on time. |
| 80 | Szilagyi et al, 2011 | Adolescents aged 11–15 | Pertussis, Men, HPV | Ethnicity | 7546 | Y | – | Y | Y | Y | Reminder/recall and home visits undertaken by specialist vaccine system navigators. | Becoming UTD for each vaccine was 12% to 16% higher in the intervention group (p<0.001), with 71% of the intervention group having received a reminder and 12% a home visit. |
| 81 | Bar-Shain et al, 2015 | Adolescents aged 11–18 | HPV, MenC, Tdap | Deprivation, ethnicity | 3393 | Y | Y | Y | Y | – | Depending on availability of contact information either an email, text message or postcard was sent, repeated every 2 months for up to 12 months until UTD | 25.5% of adolescents in the study received at least one missing vaccine and response to the messaging reduced with each round. There were no differential effects by age, gender, insurance status or ethnicity. |
| 82 | Brigham et al, 2012 | Adolescents aged 13–17. | Tdap, Men4 | Urban, not UTD | 424 | Y | – | – | Y | – | Compared calls to parents to calls to parents and adolescents. | Higher uptake in the parent and adolescent reminder group (adj OR 2.27,) however with a large CI (CI 1.00 to 5.18) |
| 83 | Morris et al, 2015 | Adolescents aged 11–17. | HPV, Men4, Tdap, Var | Urban, deprivation | 5050 | Y | Y | Y | Y | – | Series of 3 batches of reminders over 6 months, based on parents’ choice of message medium. | Those who signed up for any method of reminder were more likely to become UTD than those who only received an enrolment phone call (24.6% vs 12.4%, p<0.001). |
| 84 | Mantzari et al, 2015 | Adolescent girls aged 17–18 | HPV initiation and completion | Deprivation | 1000 | Y | Y | Y | – | – | Letter with incentive offer sent to house, followed by series of text messages between the second and third dose. | Increased uptake of the first dose in intervention individuals (OR 1.63). However, no differential impact by deprivation. |
| 85 | Stockwell et al, 2012 B | CYP aged 6 months to 18 years. | Influenza | Low income, ethnicity | 9213 | – | Y | Series of five text messages with educational information. | Higher proportion of CYP vaccinated in the intervention group (3.7% increase, CI 1.5% to 5.9%, p=0.001; relative risk ratio 1.09, CI 1.04 to 1.15), although overall rates remained low at around 40% | |||
| 86 | Stockwell et al, 2015 | Children 6 months to 8 years | Influenza | Low income, ethnicity | 660 | – | Y | Y | – | – | Three arms: education vs conventional text plus letter, and usual care (letter only) control. | Children in the educational group were significantly more likely to receive the second influenza dose (72.7%, p=0.003) compared to conventional text (66.7%) and postal reminder only (57.1%). |
| 87 | Hofstetter et al, 2015 B | CYP 6 months to 17 years | Influenza | Low income, ethnicity | 5462 | Y | Y | Y | – | – | Three arms: interactive educational message vs educational text vs usual care control. | The interactive component of the messages had low uptake (1.0% using the service); however, slightly more in this arm were vaccinated than those who received the education only text (38.5% vs 35.3%, relative risk ratio 1.09 CI 1.00 to 1.19, p=0.04) |
CYP, children and young people; HCW, healthcare workers, for example, doctors, nurses or allied health professionals; Hib, Haemophilus influenzae group b vaccination; HPV, human papillomavirus vaccination; Men4, quadrivalent meningococcal vaccination (A, C, W and Y); MenC, meningococcal group c vaccination; MMR, measles, mumps and rubella vaccination; Td, tetanus and diphtheria vaccination; Tdap, tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis vaccination; UTD, up-to-date with all recommended vaccines for age; Var, varicella vaccination.