Effect of patient reminder/recall interventions on immunization rates: A review.

CONTEXT: Immunization rates for children and adults remain below national goals. While experts recommend that health care professionals remind patients of needed immunizations- few practitioners actually use reminders. Little is known about the effectiveness of reminders in different settings or patient populations. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effectiveness of patient reminder systems in improving immunization rates- and to compare the effectiveness of different types of reminders for a variety of patient populations. DATA SOURCES: A search was performed using MEDLINE- EMBASE- PsychINFO- Sociological Abstracts- and CAB Health Abstracts. Relevant articles- as well as published abstracts- conference proceedings- and files of study collaborators- were searched for relevant references. STUDY SELECTION AND DATA EXTRACTION: English-language studies involving patient reminder/recall interventions (using criteria established by the Cochrane Collaboration) were eligible for review if they involved randomized controlled