Preoperative automatic reminder systems and impact on quality and compliance with colonoscopy preparation: A multicenter randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Objectives: Traditional preoperative reminding services have been applied to enhance the quality of bowel preparation for colonoscopy. In this study we aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of an automated electronic reminder system (E-reminder) on improving bowel preparation and the quality of preoperative education before colonoscopy.

Methods: From August 2021 to March 2022, 833 outpatients aged 50–75 years who underwent colonoscopy were included and randomly assigned to the E-reminder group and the control group. While the control group received routine preoperative education. The E-reminder group received automatic phone call, text message reminders and web services regarding the details of bowel preparation before the colonoscopic examination. The quality of bowel preparation was evaluated by the Boston Bowel Preparation Scale (BBPS) score and the previously validated objective evaluation scale of automatic BBPS (e-BBPS).

Results: In manual assessment, the rate of adequate bowel preparation was improved in the E-reminder group of intention-to-treat population using BBPS (60.7% vs 54.5%,P = 0.01). The percentage of objective evaluated adequate bowel preparation using e-BBPS in the E-reminder group of per-protocol population was significantly higher than that in the control group (76.9% vs 69.2%,P = 0.02).

Conclusions: E-reminder was an effective tool to improve the quality of bowel preparation and compliance with medical instructions. It may be regarded as an efficient and convenient education tool, improving the quality of medical service.

Keywords

bowel preparation / colonoscopy / preoperative education

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2023 Chinese Medical Association Shanghai Branch, Chinese Society of Gastroenterology, Renji Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.