An interventional study of Outreach mailer and Humor/Salience in Health Promotion, Prevention and Risk Reduction Behavior, sponsored by Geisinger Clinic. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2022-12-01.
Sponsored by Geisinger Clinic · Not applicable, Interventional, and Health services research
The goal of this study is to determine the most effective messages for encouraging patients with chronic conditions, who have not seen their doctor in at least one year, to return to the clinic. Study participants will receive postcards or letters encouraging them to make an appointment. Researchers will assess whether messages increase appointment scheduling (and attendance).
About 18,500 Geisinger patients, Geisinger Health Plan members, and Medicaid patients with chronic illness have not been seen in a clinic for at least one year, which is concerning because regular appointments are necessary for chronic disease management. Geisinger is therefore working to encourage those with chronic illness and overdue appointments to return to the clinic.
In the present study, patients will either receive a mailer (with a message encouraging them to schedule an appointment with their physician), or no mailer. The purpose of the study is to compare three different mailers to assess which is most effective at encouraging patients to schedule and attend an appointment. The three mailers include (1) a standard outreach postcard (emphasizing that we are "checking in" with the patient), and, informed by behavioral science research, (2) a postcard with a cartoon and humorous messages and (3) a letter signed by a physician. The study will compare the effectiveness of the three experimental mailer arms to each other and to a no-contact control arm.
990 studies on the registry are indexed under Chronic Disease; 178 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 21,562 is above the median of 120 across 722 interventional studies indexed under Chronic Disease.
Browse Chronic Disease studies →Geisinger Clinic is the lead sponsor of 125 studies on the registry; 21 are open to participants now.
Of its 9 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 7 (78%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Inclusion Criteria:
This group receives a postcard with a stock image on the front and a message encouraging regular visits to manage health on the back.
Behavioral: Outreach mailer
This group receives a postcard with with a cartoon image and a visit-related joke on the front and a humorous message on the back, with additional information about why visits are important, and what to expect at the appointment.
Behavioral: Outreach mailer · Behavioral: Humor/Salience · Behavioral: Information
This group receives a personalized letter signed by a physician with information about why visits are important, and what to expect at the appointment.
Behavioral: Outreach mailer · Behavioral: Doctor's authority · Behavioral: Information
This group will not receive a study mailer during the trial.
Postcard or letter
Funny cartoon
Letter from a doctor
Information about benefits of the appointment
Patients - Appointment scheduling
Proportion of Geisinger patients who schedule an appointment
Time frame: 30 days
Patients - Appointment scheduling - Comparing mailers
Proportion of Geisinger patients who schedule an appointment, comparing relative efficacy of the mailers
Time frame: 30 days
Patients - Attendance at scheduled appointments within 180 days of mailer
Proportion of appointments (from the primary outcome) that were attended. This outcome focuses on attendance at appointments that were scheduled within 30 days of the mailer drop date. It is possible to schedule an appointment months in advance, so the Time Frame needs to be long to capture attendance at any appointment scheduled within 30 days of the mailer. 180 days should be sufficient to capture all scheduled appointments.
Time frame: 180 days
Patients, Members & Medicaid - Attendance at any appointment
Attendance at any appointment within 30 days of drop date
Time frame: 30 days
Patients, Members & Medicaid - Attendance at any appointment
Attendance at any appointment within 90 days of drop date
Time frame: 90 days
Patients, Members & Medicaid - Attendance at any appointment
Attendance at any appointment within 180 days of drop date
Time frame: 180 days
Patients, Members & Medicaid - Timing of appointment
Number of days between the drop date and any appointment captured in Secondary Outcome 3
Time frame: 30 days
Patients, Members & Medicaid - Timing of appointment
Number of days between the drop date and any appointment captured in Secondary Outcome 4
Time frame: 90 days
Patients, Members & Medicaid - Timing of appointment
Number of days between the drop date and any appointment captured in Secondary Outcome 5
Time frame: 180 days
Patients - Appointment scheduling - Comparing mailers
Proportion of Geisinger patients who schedule an appointment, comparing relative efficacy of the interventions. Note: this analysis will inform internal operations but will not be reported in publication.
Time frame: 14 days
Patients - Calls to scheduling line
Proportion of Geisinger patients who call the appointment scheduling line.
Time frame: 30 days
Documents are hosted by the registry — open the source record to download them.
Plan to share: Yes — Data with no personally identifiable information will be made available to other researchers on the Open Science Framework for transparency.
Supporting information: Sap, Analytic code
This study is completed, as verified in Nov 2022. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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