From the PubMed article abstract: "Globally, non-attendance for immunization appointments remains a challenge to healthcare providers. A review of the 2011 immunization coverage for Kadoma City, Zimbabwe was 74% for Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV), Pneumococcal and Pentavalent antigens. The immunization coverage was less than 90%, which is the target for Kadoma City. Adoption of short message services (SMS) reminders has been shown to enhance attendance in some medical settings. The study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of SMS reminders on immunization programme for Kadoma City."

mFHAST Implications: Opportunities for increasing immunization appointment adherence through use of SMS

Authors' conclusions from the article: Low to moderate quality evidence included in this review shows that mobile phone text messaging reminders increase attendance at healthcare appointments compared to no reminders, or postal reminders. Text messaging reminders were similar to telephone reminders in terms of their effect on attendance rates, and cost less than telephone reminders. However, the included studies were heterogeneous and the quality of the evidence therein is low to moderate. Further, there is a lack of information about health effects, adverse effects and harms, user evaluation of the intervention and user perceptions of its safety. The current evidence therefore still remains insufficient to conclusively inform policy decisions.

mFHAST Implication: Mobile phone messaging applications, such as Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Message Service (MMS), could provide an important, inexpensive delivery medium for reminders for healthcare appointments.