Trial reportJournal of the International AIDS Society2020
Appointment reminders to increase uptake of HIV retesting by at-risk individuals: a randomized controlled study in Thailand.
Trial report in Journal of the International AIDS Society, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04585165 (Cohort of Individuals at Risk of HIV Infection Recruited in User-friendly HIV Testing and Counseling Services in Thailand Provinces), which is not on this map. Cited by 8 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Cohort of Individuals at Risk of HIV Infection Recruited in User-friendly HIV Testing and Counseling Services in Thailand Provinces
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evaluations of digital public health interventions in the WHO Southeast Asia Region: a systematic literature review.International journal of technology assessment in health care · 2024Pooled it
- Demand creation for HIV testing services: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS medicine · 2023Pooled it
- Effectiveness and acceptability of conversational agents for sexual health promotion: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Sexual health · 2022Pooled it
- Appointment reminders to increase uptake of HIV retesting by at-risk individuals: a randomized controlled study in Thailand.Journal of the International AIDS Society · 2020Trial
- Factors Affecting the Completion of Sharps Injury Clearance at Belau National Hospital, Palau, 2013 to 2024.Hawai'i journal of health & social welfare · 2026Article
- Healthcare Appointments as Commitment Devices.Economic journal (London, England) · 2025Article
- Hepatitis B prevalence and associated factors in adults presenting for infection screening in northern Thailand.Journal of virus eradication · 2023Article
- HIV Testing Strategies for Health Departments to End the Epidemic in the U.S.American journal of preventive medicine · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
15 authors at 7 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionFrequent HIV testing of at-risk individuals is crucial to detect and treat infections early and prevent transmissions. We assessed the effect of reminders on HIV retesting uptake.
methodsThe study was conducted within a programme involving four facilities providing free-of-charge HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B and C testing and counselling in northern Thailand. Individuals found HIV negative and identified at risk by counsellors were invited to participate in a three-arm, open-label, randomized, controlled trial comparing: (a) "No Appointment & No Reminder" (control arm); (b) "No Appointment but Reminder": short message service (SMS) sent 24 weeks after the enrolment visit to remind booking an appointment, and sent again one week later if no appointment was booked; and (c) "Appointment & Reminder": appointment scheduled during the enrolment visit and SMS sent one week before appointment to ask for confirmation; if no response: single call made within one business day. The primary endpoint was a HIV retest within seven months after the enrolment visit. The cost of each reminder strategy was calculated as the sum of the following costs in United States dollars (USD): time spent by participants, counsellors and hotline staff; phone calls made; and SMS sent. The target sample size was 217 participants per arm (651 overall).
resultsBetween April and November 2017, 651 participants were randomized. The proportion presenting for HIV retesting within seven months was 11.2% (24/215) in the control arm, versus 19.3% (42/218) in "No Appointment but Reminder" (p = 0.023) and 36.7% (80/218) in "Appointment & Reminder" (p < 0.001). Differences in proportions compared to the control arm were respectively +8.1% (95% CI: +1.4% to +14.8%) and +25.5% (+17.9% to +33.2%). The incremental cost-effectiveness ratios of "No Appointment but Reminder" and "Appointment & Reminder" compared to the control arm were respectively USD 0.05 and USD 0.14 per participant for each 5% increase in HIV retesting uptake within seven months.
conclusionsScheduling an appointment and sending a reminder one week before was a simple, easy-to-implement and affordable intervention that significantly increased HIV retesting uptake in these at-risk individuals. The personal phone call to clients probably contributed, and also improved service efficiency.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.