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Shrestha M, Bhandari G, Kamalakannan S, Murthy GVS, Rathi SK, Gudlavalleti AG, Agiwal V, Pant HB, Pandey B, Ghimire R, Ale D, Kayastha S, Karki R, Chaudhary DS, Byanju R, Operational Research Capacity Building Study Group
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Interventions to Improve the Follow-up Rate for Children With Visual Disabilities in an Eye Hospital in Nepal: Nonrandomized Study
Evaluating the effectiveness of interventions to improve the Follow-up Rate for children with visual disabilities in an Eye Hospital in Nepal: a non-randomized study.
Manisha Shrestha;
Gopal Bhandari;
Sureshkumar Kamalakannan;
Gudlavalleti Venkata Satyanarayana Murthy;
Suresh Kumar Rathi;
Anirudh Gaurang Gudlavalleti;
Varun Agiwal;
Hira Ballabh Pant;
Binod Pandey;
Ramesh Ghimire;
Daman Ale;
Sajani Kayastha;
Rakshya Karki;
Daya Shankar Chaudhary;
Raghunandan Byanju;
Operational Research Capacity Building Study Group
ABSTRACT
Background:
Monitoring ocular morbidity among pediatric patients requires regular follow-up visits. We intended to assess the effectiveness of two interventions: counseling and reminders through SMS+phone calls to improve the follow-up rates.
Objective:
This study aimed to evaluate the impact of interventions like counseling and reminder SMS text messaging and phone calls in improving the follow-up rate of pediatric patients.
Methods:
Quasi-experimental design was used. Children (0-16 years) with ocular conditions requiring at least three follow-up visits during the study period were included. A total of 264 participants were equally allocated to three intervention groups: Counseling; SMS+Phone call; and Standard intervention. Participants attending three follow-ups within two days of the scheduled visit date were considered compliant. The difference in the proportion of participants, completing all three follow-up visits in each group was assessed.
Results:
The demographic characteristics of the participants were similar across the study groups. The overall compliance with the follow-up as defined by the investigators was found to be 0.76 % (2/264). There was no statistically significant difference in the proportion of follow-up between the study groups. However, the proportion of participants attending the first and second follow-ups as well as the overall total number of follow-ups was more in the SMS+Phone call group followed by the counseling group.
Conclusions:
We did not find any evidence of the effectiveness of our interventions to improve the follow-up rate, primary reasons could be that this study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic period. It could also be possible that the intensity of the interventions may have influenced outcomes. A rigorously designed study during the absence of any lockdown restrictions is warranted to evaluate intervention effectiveness. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04837534; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04837534
Citation
Please cite as:
Shrestha M, Bhandari G, Kamalakannan S, Murthy GVS, Rathi SK, Gudlavalleti AG, Agiwal V, Pant HB, Pandey B, Ghimire R, Ale D, Kayastha S, Karki R, Chaudhary DS, Byanju R, Operational Research Capacity Building Study Group
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Interventions to Improve the Follow-up Rate for Children With Visual Disabilities in an Eye Hospital in Nepal: Nonrandomized Study