Background Mobile phoned–based interventions have been increasingly used in clinical populations to improve health and health care delivery. The literature has shown that mobile phone–based text messages (short message service, SMS) are instantaneous, cost effective, and have less chance of being misplaced. Studies using mobile phone based–text messages have reported text messages as effective reminders that have resulted in increased appointment attendance, adherence to treatment, and better self-management. There have been no reports of adverse events when using text messaging in terms of misreading or misinterpreting data, transmitting inaccurate data, losing verbal or nonverbal communication cues, privacy issues, or failure or delay in message delivery. However, the literature has cited a need for personalized messages that are more responsive to individual needs. In addition, there has been a dearth of information on the use of reminders in nonclinical populations. Objective The goal of this study is to assess the effectiveness of adding reminders in the form of text messaging versus reminder calls versus text messages and reminder calls to increase use of service referrals provided through community outreach. Methods A total of 300 participants will be recruited for the study. Each participant will be randomized to one of three arms: a group that receives only reminder calls (CALLSONLY); a group that receives only text message reminders (TEXTONLY); and a group that receives both reminder calls and text messages (CALLS+TEXT). All groups will receive their reminder intervention on the 15th and 45th day after baseline when they receive medical and social service referrals from the community health workers (CHWs). A standard script will be used to administer the call and text reminders and a 15-item telephone-based satisfaction survey will be administered to assess the participant satisfaction with the process of receiving periodic reminders. Results The study is in the recruitment and follow-up phase. The authors anticipate completion of recruitment, interventions, and data entry by July 2016. Preliminary results are expected to be available by September 2016. Conclusions This study will provide an opportunity to test the effectiveness of mobile-based interventions on nonclinical, community-recruited populations. In particular, such a protocol would increase the effectiveness of a community-based engagement program by instating a formal reminder system for all program members who receive social and/or medical service referrals during outreach in the community. Findings from this study would guide the development and implementation of reminder protocols for community-based engagement programs nationwide.

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Background: Recent research on health care delivery has shown that mobile based interventions are effective in bringing behavior change among clinical populations. Mobile phone-based interventions are considered to be convenient and economical to the provider and non-invasive and hence acceptable to the receiver. Studies have also shown that personalized text message reminders are more acceptable and effective than automated mass messages. However, despite the increasing literature on mobile phone-based interventions (mHealth) contributing to improvement in health care, there is a dearth of information on the use of reminders for social and medical service referrals provided to nonclinical populations by community-engagement programs.Objective: This pilot study aimed to apply mobile phone-based interventions to improve the utilization rates of medical and social service referrals provided to community members by Community Health Workers (CHW's) through HealthStreet -a community engagement initiative at the University of Florida (UF).Methods: 300 eligible HealthStreet members were randomly assigned to CALLSONLY, TEXTONLY, CALLS+TEXT reminder intervention groups. Reminders were sent based on their assignment on the 15 th and 45 th day after the baseline assessment reminding them to utilize the medical and/or social referrals that were provided by the community health workers based on their expressed need during the baseline assessment. A telephonic follow up was done on the 30 th and 60 th day to assess the rate of utilization of the referrals. Further, a telephone based brief satisfaction survey was also administered to all participants on the 60 th day follow up call.Results: Out of 290 participants, 201 (69.3%) successfully completed the 30-day HealthStreet follow up and 149 (51.4%) participants successfully completed the 60-day HealthStreet follow up. At the 30-day follow up, 52 of the 201 respondents reported the use of at least one referral and there were no differences for utilization by contact status. At the 60-day follow up, 69 of the 149 participants reported utilizing at least one referral; there were no differences for this group either. Conclusions:Findings from this study did not find any significant difference in the rate of service referral utilization between participants who received different types of reminders. The absence of a significant difference between the two groups may be because of the smaller sample size of the study.