Trial reportBMC medical research methodology2020
Effectiveness of SMS messaging for diarrhoea measurement: a factorial cross-over randomised controlled trial.
Trial report in BMC medical research methodology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Methods to increase response to postal and electronic questionnaires.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- The impact of diarrhoea measurement methods for under 5s in low- and middle-income countries on estimated diarrhoea rates at the population level: A systematic review and meta-analysis of methodological and primary empirical studies.Tropical medicine & international health : TM & IH · 2022Pooled it
- Text message surveillance for rapidEpidemiology and infection · 2025Article
- Mpox awareness and vaccination willingness among a household cohort in Matlab, Bangladesh.Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene · 2025Article
- Evaluating self-reported vaccination hesitancy in mobile phone surveys in low- and middle-income countries: learned lessons from Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, and Malawi.Journal of global health · 2025Article
- Promoting data harmonization to evaluate vaccine hesitancy in LMICs: approach and applications.BMC medical research methodology · 2023Article
- COVID-19 vaccination refusal trends in Kenya over 2021.Vaccine · 2023Article
- Evaluations of water, sanitation and hygiene interventions should not use diarrhoea as (primary) outcome.BMJ global health · 2022Review
- Participatory Surveillance of COVID-19 in Lesotho via Weekly Calls: Protocol for Cell Phone Data Collection.JMIR research protocols · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundText messaging systems are used to collect data on symptom prevalence. Using a text messaging system, we evaluated the effects of question load, question frequency, and financial incentive on response rates and reported infant diarrhoea rates in an infant diarrhoea survey.
methodsWe performed a factorial cross-over randomised controlled trial of an SMS surveying system for infant diarrhoea surveillance with treatments: financial incentive (yes/no), question load (1-question/3-question), and questioning frequency (daily/fortnightly). Participants progressed through all treatment combinations over eight two-week rounds. Data were analysed using multivariable logistic regressions to determine the impacts of the treatments on the response rates and reported diarrhoea rates. Attitudes were explored through qualitative interviews.
resultsFor the 141 participants, the mean response rate was 47%. In terms of percentage point differences (ppd), daily questioning was associated with a lower response rate than fortnightly (- 1·2[95%CI:-4·9,2·5]); high (3-question) question loads were associated with a lower response rate than low (1-question) question loads (- 7·0[95%CI:- 10·8,-3·1]); and financial incentivisation was associated with a higher response rate than no financial incentivisation (6·4[95%CI:2·6,10·2]). The mean two-week diarrhoea rate was 36·4%. Daily questioning was associated with a higher reported diarrhoea rate than fortnightly (29·9[95%CI:22·8,36·9]); with little evidence for impact by incentivisation or question load.
conclusionsClose to half of all participants responded to the SMS survey. Daily questioning evoked a statistically higher rate of reported diarrhoea, while financial incentivisation and low (1-question) question loads evoked higher response rates than no incentive and high (3-question) question loads respectively.
trial registrationThe protocol was prospectively registered on ISRCTN on the 20th of March 2019 under number ISRCTN11410773 .
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