A systematic review on reminder systems in physical therapy

BACKGROUND: The main goal of physical therapy is to help the patient gain a better health status. Several studies have investigated the use of reminders to prevent such failures on the patients’ side. This article presents a systematic review of the literature concerning reminders in physical therapy. METHODS: Databases were searched until May 2017 and literatures were found from April 1992 until 2017. The literature recruitment strategy was based on applying several keywords and Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) combination running against title and abstract, including concepts such as reminder, physical therapy. The finally selected articles were categorized through reminder aspects such as how, who feedback. Data were extracted according to PRISMA guidelines. RESULTS: In 47% of studies, the reminder was sent to the patients, 29% to the physical therapists and 12% to the caretaker team. In 24% of the studies, paper-based letters were main medium for reminders while the rest were various types of media like emails and SMS mobile text messages. 35% of the articles showed positive effects of the reminders. CONCLUSIONS: Many reminder methods consisted of SMS, phone calls, letters, emails and notices on the wall were used in physical therapy. Reminders may be used to improve patients' adherence to exercise programs.