A Pilot Study Using Text Messaging to Communicate With Adolescent Females in the Pediatric Emergency Department (T2I)

Columbia University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Pregnancy

Treatments: Other: Standard Referral; Other: Text Messaging Intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02093884

AAAM3457

Details and patient eligibility

About

The objective of this study is to develop and test an emergency department (ED)-based intervention which uses text messages to facilitate contraception initiation.

Full description

Our hypothesis is that adolescent females at high pregnancy risk who receive text message reminders and motivational messages that promote contraception and referral to the Family Planning Clinic are more likely to start effective contraception than those who receive standard paper-based referral to the Family Planning Clinic alone.

Enrollment: 100 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 14 to 19 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Aged 14-19 years
• Sexually active with males in the past three months
• Presenting to the ED for a reproductive health complaint.

Exclusion criteria

• Presently pregnant
• Too ill for participation per the attending physician
• Cognitively impaired
• In foster care or a ward of the state
• Does not speak English or Spanish
• Does not own a cellular or mobile phone with text messaging capabilities
• Used contraception at last intercourse and/or is currently using any "highly effective" or "effective" form of contraception (as defined by the World Health Organization)
• Does not live in Manhattan or the Bronx

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

---

100 participants in 2 patient groups

Text Messaging Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Patients in the text messaging group will receive educational and motivational text messages.

Treatment:

Other: Text Messaging Intervention

Standard Referral

Active Comparator group

Description:

Patients in the standard referral arm will receive paper based information about the Family Planning Clinic.

Treatment:

Other: Standard Referral