SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Telephone”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

PubMed2006

Telephone screening for hazardous drinking among injured patients seen in acute care clinics: feasibility study.

AIMS: We evaluated the effectiveness of telephoning injured patients after discharge, compared with contacting them in the clinic during the acute care visit, for screening for hazardous drinking and eliciting willingness to participate in a lifestyle intervention trial. METHODS: We conducted a quasi-randomized controlled trial among acutely injured adult patients in trauma and acute care clinics, assigning telephone and clinic screening strategies systematically by week. During telephone weeks, we mailed study information to patients identified from computerized records, then telephoned them. During clinic weeks, researchers recruited patients awaiting care. We screened for hazardous drinking using the AUDIT-C (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-C). We examined the proportion of all injured adult patients who were screened, the proportion of screened patients with hazardous drinking (AUDIT-C score >or=4), and the proportion willing to participate in a (hypothetical) lifestyle intervention trial. Differences were analysed with non-linear mixed models using generalized estimating equations, controlling for age, sex, and facility. Levers and barriers to screening were explored through structured interviews with research staff. RESULTS: We enrolled 29% (469/1,609) of all injured adult patients and 76% of injured patients contacted and found to be eligible. Of screened patients, 23.1% screened positive for hazardous drinking. Telephone and clinic contact were equally effective for screening patients (OR = 1.05; 95% CI = 0.59-1.87), identifying hazardous drinking (OR=0.97; 95% CI = 0.54-1.74), and eliciting willingness to participate in an intervention trial (OR=1.49; 95% CI = 0.97-2.30). Clinic site modified results: telephone was more effective than clinic contact for screening urban patients (OR=1.99; 95% CI = 1.36-2.93), but less effective for screening suburban patients (OR = 0.70; 95% CI = 0.69-0.71). Barriers to clinic screening included lack of clinic staff support, time constraints, and difficulty recruiting elderly or acutely distressed patients. Barriers to telephone screening included erroneous contact information and failure to answer the telephone. CONCLUSIONS: Telephone screening is a feasible and efficient method for screening moderately injured adult patients for hazardous drinking, but characteristics of the clinical site (including personnel) influence its effectiveness. Trauma and acute care clinics are likely to be fruitful sites for identification of patients with hazardous drinking, whether for enrollment into brief intervention trials or treatment programmes.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Cellular telephone use and risk of intratemporal facial nerve tumor.

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: Microwave radiation exposure from cellular telephone use has been implicated in the development of intracranial tumors. The intratemporal facial nerve (IFN) is exposed to higher levels of cellular telephone radiation than intracranial tissues. The purpose of the study was to determine whether cellular telephone use is associated with an increased risk of IFN tumors. STUDY DESIGN: Case-control using a structured telephone survey at an academic, tertiary-care referral center. METHODS: Patients with IFN tumors (n = 18) were case-matched with patients treated for acoustic neuroma (n = 51), rhinosinusitis (n = 72), and dysphonia or gastroesophageal reflux disease (n = 69). Risk of facial nerve tumorigenesis was compared by extent of cellular telephone use and other risk factors. RESULTS: The odds ratio of developing an IFN tumor was 0.6 (95% CI, 0.2-1.9) with any handheld cellular telephone use and 0.4 (95% CI, 0.1-2.1) with regular cellular telephone use. No factors were associated with an increased risk for IFN tumor development. CONCLUSIONS: Regular cellular telephone use does not appear to be associated with a higher risk of IFN tumor development. The short duration of widespread cellular telephone use precludes definite exclusion as a risk for IFN tumor development.

Cell Phone↗

PubMed2000

Enhancing influenza immunization. Postcard and telephone reminders and the challenge of immunization site shift.

OBJECTIVE: To determine if postcard and telephone reminders increased the rate of influenza immunization of Medicare beneficiaries. DESIGN: Before and after trial (postcard reminders) with systematically allocated control group (telephone reminder intervention). SETTING: A semirural family practice residency program. PATIENTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS: All 475 noninstitutionalized persons older than 65 years who had received at least 1 office service in the previous 2 years. INTERVENTION: In September 1996, each of 475 patients received a postcard urging prompt influenza immunization. Those not responding within 1 month were systematically allocated either to a group receiving further telephone contact or to a control group. At the time of telephone contact, any offered information about influenza immunization received outside the Smoky Hill Family Practice Center, Salina, Kan, was recorded. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: We measured the percentage of change in practice-administered influenza immunizations compared with the baseline rate of the preceding 2 years; the difference in immunization rates between the telephone intervention group and controls; and the number of patients contacted by telephone who reported receiving influenza immunization at a site other than the Family Practice Center. RESULTS: Twenty-eight percent of patients who received a postcard obtained office influenza immunizations within 1 month, but no additional immunizations could be attributed to the telephone intervention. Thirty-five percent of patients contacted by telephone reported receiving influenza immunization at a site other than the Family Practice Center. CONCLUSIONS: The postcard intervention was associated with a significant increase in the office immunization rate. This increase may have been confounded by "site shift" in which individuals came to the office for an immunization that they might otherwise have received at other community sites.

Aged↗

PubMed2006

Benefits of telephone care over primary care for smoking cessation: a randomized trial.

BACKGROUND: Brief clinician intervention and telephone counseling are both effective aids for smoking cessation. However, the potential benefit of telephone care above and beyond routine clinician intervention has not been examined previously. The objective of this study is to determine if telephone care increases smoking cessation compared with brief clinician intervention as part of routine health care. METHODS: This 2-group, prospective, randomized controlled trial enrolled 837 daily smokers from 5 Veterans Affairs medical centers in the upper Midwest. The telephone care group (n = 417) received behavioral counseling with mailing of smoking cessation medications as clinically indicated. The standard care group (n = 420) received intervention as part of routine health care. The primary outcome was self-reported 6-month duration of abstinence 12 months after enrollment. Secondary outcomes were 7-day point prevalence abstinence at 3 and 12 months, participation in counseling programs, and use of smoking cessation medications. RESULTS: Using intention-to-treat procedures, we found that the rate of 6-month abstinence at the 12-month follow-up was 13.0% in the telephone care group and 4.1% in the standard care group (odds ratio [OR], 3.50; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.99-6.15). The rate of 7-day point prevalence abstinence at 3 months was 39.6% in the telephone care group and 10.1% in the standard care group (OR, 5.84; 95% CI, 4.02-8.50). Telephone care compared with standard care increased the rates of participation in counseling programs (97.1% vs 24.0%; OR, 96.22; 95% CI, 52.57-176.11) and use of smoking cessation medications (89.6% vs 52.3%; OR, 7.85; 95% CI, 5.34-11.53). CONCLUSION: Telephone care increases the use of behavioral and pharmacologic assistance and leads to higher smoking cessation rates compared with routine health care provider intervention.

Counseling↗

PubMed1997

Pediatric residents' telephone triage experience. Relevant to general pediatric practice?

OBJECTIVES: To describe a pediatric resident telephone triage system in a tertiary hospital and to determine its relevance to telephone experience in general pediatric practice DESIGN: An analysis of 514 telephone calls from parents of continuity clinic patients made to pediatric residents. The evaluation included: chief complaint, disposition of call, age of patient, and level of training of the resident answering the call. A comparison was made with published information about a private-practice telephone triage system. SETTING: Pediatric continuity clinic, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta. PATIENTS: Children registered in the pediatric resident continuity clinic at the Medical College of Georgia. RESULTS: The 13 most frequent reasons for calling were some of the most common problems seen in pediatric practice. The disposition of calls was as follows: 272 (53%) were given telephone advice alone, 119 (23%) were offered an appointment for the next day, and 123 (24%) were advised to come to the emergency department immediately. Disposition did not vary with residency level. Both chief complaints and disposition of calls were similar to those reported in a private-practice nurse triage system. CONCLUSIONS: Answering telephone calls in a residency telephone triage system, when combined with a curriculum that includes next-day monitoring, feedback from a preceptor, and seminar discussions focused on telephone management situations, is a valuable training experience and is relevant for residents going into private pediatric practice.

Child↗

PubMed1994

Differences in sociodemographic, health status, and lifestyle characteristics among American Indians by telephone coverage.

BACKGROUND: Telephone interviews are often used to obtain population-based estimates of health-related behaviors but they have serious limitations if phone coverage is poor and people without telephones differ from those with telephones. In this article we examine differences in selected sociodemographic, health status, and lifestyle factors among a sample of American Indian adults with and without telephones. METHODS: In-person interviews were conducted with 410 adult residents of a Rocky Mountain state American Indian reservation. The interview included a question asking about telephone coverage. We compared respondents with and without telephones on demographics, health status, and lifestyle practices. The comparison was repeated for health status and lifestyle practices after adjusting for differences in demographic characteristics. RESULTS: Residents without phones generally were less educated, had lower income and were more likely to be unemployed. The prevalence of unhealthful lifestyle practices/factors was consistently higher for residents without telephones. Many of the differences were reduced by adjusting for demographic characteristics, but significant differences remained for alcohol and marijuana use. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that developing estimates of sociodemographic, health, and lifestyle characteristics on a Native American Indian reservation using a telephone survey method may result in significant noncoverage biases. Adjusting for demographic characteristics eliminated most of these differences. However, significant differences were still apparent with alcohol and marijuana use.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Do cases and controls matched on the first eight digits of their telephone number share geographic proximity and socioeconomic characteristics?

PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to assess the geographic proximity of cases and controls who share the same "stem" of their telephone number (area code, prefix, and next two digits) and compare their socioeconomic characteristics. METHODS: We compared residential proximity and characteristics of case-control sets selected in this way with sets consisting of the same cases matched to different controls on all variables except telephone number stem. RESULTS: Mean distance between telephone stem-matched pairs was much less than that between pairs not matched by telephone number stem (3.53 and 20.14 km, respectively). There was slight agreement between cases and controls for some measures of socioeconomic status in both sets. We also compared distances between residences of control respondents who shared the same telephone number stem with those between residences of respondents who shared only the same telephone area code and prefix. Mean distances for the two groups were similar. CONCLUSIONS: Geographic proximity between cases and controls can be achieved by matching on either telephone number stem or only telephone area code and prefix. Adjustment for socioeconomic factors may be needed even if cases and controls live close to each other.

Age Factors↗

PubMed2006

Postal surveys of physicians gave superior response rates over telephone interviews in a randomized trial.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To compare general practitioner (GP) response to a telephone interview with response to a postal survey with three reminders in a randomized controlled trial. METHODS: GPs were randomly assigned to either a telephone interview or a postal survey. GPs in the telephone group were mailed a letter of invitation and asked to undertake a telephone interview. GPs in the postal group were mailed a letter of invitation and questionnaire. Non-responders were sent up to three reminders, the final by registered post. Response rates were calculated for each group. RESULTS: 416 GPs were randomized to the telephone interview and 451 to the postal survey. Eighty-six in the telephone group and 30 in the postal were ineligible. One hundred thirty-four GPs completed the telephone interview with a response rate of 40.6% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 35.3%, 46.1%). Two hundred fifty-two GPs completed the postal survey with a response rate of 59.9% (95%CI: 55.0%, 64.6%). The difference in response was 19.3% (95%CI: 12.2%, 26.3%). CONCLUSIONS: These results show that postal surveys with three reminders can have superior response rates compared with a telephone interview.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMed2001

Patients' experiences of receiving telephone advice from a GP co-operative.

BACKGROUND: The use of the telephone to deliver health care advice has increased considerably in recent years. Little research has been carried out to explore the experience of patients who receive such advice and its acceptability. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to describe the expectations of patients, or third party callers, who had contacted a GP out-of-hours co-operative and their satisfaction with telephone advice received. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted by telephone 7-10 days after contact with one inner city GP co-operative. RESULTS: A total of 47 telephone consultations were followed up with an interview. Of these, 23 (48.9%) callers had expected to be offered a home visit when they called. Reasons for wanting a home visit were either to do with the nature of the condition and its perceived severity, problems in being able to attend the primary care centre and the risks of travel, or because of problems in communicating over the telephone. Satisfaction with telephone consultations centred mostly on the doctor being able to provide reassurance and give adequate time to allay concerns. The most common reasons given for dissatisfaction were the caller feeling that the doctor could not make a correct diagnosis without having seen the patient, or the caller being made to feel that they were wasting the doctor's time. Many patients were anxious about their ability to describe symptoms over the telephone, or understand and follow the advice that they received. CONCLUSIONS: There appears to be a need for patients to be better informed about the service they can expect to receive from GP co-operatives. Recent developments such as NHS Direct may have an influence on the telephone consultation rate to GP co-operatives.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Is telephone screening feasible? Accuracy and cost-effectiveness of identifying people medically eligible for home- and community-based services.

PURPOSE: To determine the accuracy of a telephone-screening system to identify persons eligible for home- and community-based long-term care. DESIGN AND METHODS: Data from Michigan telephone screens were compared to data from in-person assessments using the Minimum Data Set for Home Care (MDS-HC). Weighted kappa statistics measured the level of agreement between the two assessments. RESULTS: Overall, recommendations based on the telephone screen produced a marginal match compared to recommendations based on in-person assessment. "False positives" (individuals scoring as more impaired on the telephone screen than in person) occurred in 27% of all cases, while "false negatives" (individuals scoring as less impaired on the telephone screen) only occurred among 6% of the callers. Neither individual screen questions, source of information, location of the individual, timing between screen and assessment, nor temporal changes accounted for mismatches. Telephone screens resulted in an 11% savings over the cost of providing in-person assessments to all program seekers. IMPLICATIONS: The telephone screen has utility as a broad targeting mechanism that allows agencies to avoid costly in-person assessments for all program seekers. Evidence does not support use of the telephone screen alone to determine either medical eligibility or a specific level of care.

Algorithms↗

PubMed1997

Telephone medical care administered by internal medicine residents: concerns of program directors and implications for residency training.

The objective of this study was to determine the need for telephone medicine curricula and to help define important content for internal medicine residencies using scales that measure program director attitudes toward telephone medicine. Data were collected by surveying all 416 program directors of accredited internal medicine residencies in the United States. We applied factor analysis to develop reliable attitudinal scales and employed regression models to identify predictors of these attitudes. Response rate was 60%. Formal training for telephone medicine was available in only 6% of programs. The factor analysis showed three attitudinal concepts; all described marked program director discomfort with aspects of resident telephone prescription. Predictors of improved program director comfort included more frequent documentation of resident telephone calls, chart availability, and clear definition of resident roles pertaining to telephone interactions with patients (P < 0.02 for all predictor variables). These results identify a need for telephone curricula and suggest components that might alleviate program director discomfort with resident telephone practices.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Barthel Index information elicited over the telephone. Is it reliable?

This study examined the comparability of estimates of functional status elicited through a telephone interview and a face-to-face interview. The Barthel Index, a commonly used measure to assess activities of daily living, was administered over the telephone and then again in the home to 366 individuals, up to 5 yr after their discharge from a rehabilitation hospital. One-half of the telephone interviews were performed by health professionals and the other half by trained lay interviewers; all of the home interviews were performed by health professionals. Proxy-respondents provided information for those unable to respond for themselves. The percent agreement between the scores on the telephone and on the home interview was always greater than 90%; the intraclass correlation coefficient for the telephone/home comparison was 0.89. Responses between the modes of interview were more consistent when provided by self-respondents than when provided by proxies. The telephone assessment worked well in identifying those who did not have functional disabilities; all individuals who scored 100 on the home interview, scored 95 or better on the telephone. When differences arose, they were always in those considered to have moderate to severe impairment and were most often (23 of 29 times) in the direction of higher scores, indicative of less disability, on the telephone. The results of this study suggest that, with the exception of a small subgroup of patients, functional status can be elicited reliably over the telephone by both lay persons and health professionals.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed2002

Obtaining cornea donation consent by telephone.

BACKGROUND: Cornea donation process comes up against difficulties in obtaining families' consent. A face-to-face interview is often not possible for logistical reasons. We carried out a prospective study of the effectiveness of telephone contact in obtaining donation consent. METHODS: Consent was obtained by a single, nonmedical, hospital coordinator. If a face-to-face interview was not possible, a telephone interview was conducted using a standardized procedure. RESULTS: Over a 21-month period, 334 families were contacted, either in a face-to-face interview (142, 42.5%) or by telephone (192, 57.5%). Donation consent was obtained in 66.5% of cases, 106 times by telephone and 116 times in face-to-face interview. The acceptance rate was 55.2% by telephone and 81.6% face to face (P<0.001). In total, 47.7% of the cornea recovery consents were obtained after telephone interview. CONCLUSIONS: Telephone interview is an effective method for obtaining consent to cornea donation. Although the acceptance rate using this method is lower than by face-to-face interview, using the telephone should not be overlooked as this enabled procurement of nearly half the corneas in our hospital.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Measuring stroke impact with the stroke impact scale: telephone versus mail administration in veterans with stroke.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to examine response rate, mode effects, and reliability of the Stroke Impact Scale (SIS) in a veteran stroke population using mail and telephone modes of administration. METHODS: Patients who had suffered a stroke were identified using national VA administrative data and International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision codes in 13 participating Veterans Affairs hospital. Stroke was confirmed by reviewing electronic medical records. Patients were randomized to SIS administration by mail or telephone at 12-weeks after their stroke. Comparison of response rate, nonresponse bias, domain scores, administration costs, and instrument reliability were performed. RESULTS: Four hundred fifty-eight patients with stroke were identified, validated, and randomly assigned into 2 administration groups. No significant cluster effect was observed. Response rates for mail and telephone were 45% and 69%, respectively. Mail nonresponders were more likely to have had severe stokes, cognitive deficits, and be unmarried. No difference was observed between telephone responders and nonresponders. Responders in mail and telephone modes were not different, and the SIS score distribution did not indicate the presence of mode effects. Test-retest reliability was good to excellent in the mail group (0.77-0.99) except social participation (0.62). Test retest reliability was excellent in the telephone mode (0.90-0.99) except emotion (0.68). CONCLUSIONS: Telephone mode of survey administration yielded a higher response rate, less bias in responder selection, and higher test-retest reliability. The cost of telephone administration was 2 times the cost of mail. Mode effects in SIS score distribution were not observed in this study but additional research with larger sample sizes is needed to provide more definitive evidence.

Aged↗

PubMed1997

Face-to-face household interviews versus telephone interviews for health surveys.

The purpose of this study was to compare response distributions in health surveys for two interview modes: face-to-face household interviews and telephone interviews. There were two samples of the Perth metropolitan general population aged 16 to 69 years: a face-to-face household sample (n = 1000) and a telephone sample (n = 222). The samples were generated by probability-based methods commonly used by commercial market research organisations. The surveys occurred in August-September 1992 as part of a larger statewide survey component of a three-year evaluation of the Western Australian Health Promotion Foundation. Respondents were drawn from a two-stage cluster sample based on private dwellings for personal interviews, and from randomly selected listed and unlisted private numbers for telephone interviews. Although the samples did not differ significantly on a number of variables, the telephone sample was significantly higher in residential social status; there was significantly lower reporting of smoking and lower unsafe alcohol consumption in the telephone sample: significantly higher proportions of the telephone sample were in Prochaska's 'action' stage of change for several health behaviours; and there was significantly greater recall of health messages in the telephone sample. Health researchers should treat comparisons between different survey modes with caution, and should be aware that campaign evaluations using telephone surveys and household surveys may yield substantially different results.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Differences in mail and telephone responses to self-rated health: use of multiple imputation in correcting for response bias.

OBJECTIVES: To estimate differences in self-rated health by mode of administration and to assess the value of multiple imputation to make self-rated health comparable for telephone and mail. METHODS: In 1996, Survey 1 of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health was answered by mail. In 1998, 706 and 11,595 mid-age women answered Survey 2 by telephone and mail respectively. Self-rated health was measured by the physical and mental health scores of the SF-36. Mean change in SF-36 scores between Surveys 1 and 2 were compared for telephone and mail respondents to Survey 2, before and after adjustment for sociodemographic and health characteristics. Missing values and SF-36 scores for telephone respondents at Survey 2 were imputed from SF-36 mail responses and telephone and mail responses to sociodemographic and health questions. RESULTS: At Survey 2, self-rated health improved for telephone respondents but not mail respondents. After adjustment, mean changes in physical health and mental health scores remained higher (0.4 and 1.6 respectively) for telephone respondents compared with mail respondents (-1.2 and 0.1 respectively). Multiple imputation yielded adjusted changes in SF-36 scores that were similar for telephone and mail respondents. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The effect of mode of administration on the change in mental health is important given that a difference of two points in SF-36 scores is accepted as clinically meaningful. Health evaluators should be aware of and adjust for the effects of mode of administration on self-rated health. Multiple imputation is one method that may be used to adjust SF-36 scores for mode of administration bias.

Attitude to Health↗

PubMed1997

Validity of self-reported tooth counts during a telephone screening interview.

OBJECTIVES: Telephone screening has become a common method used in health services research to identify efficiently persons in specific populations of interest. In this research, we used a large-scale telephone screening survey to assess: (1) the effectiveness of the telephone method in gathering tooth count information by measuring response rate (cooperation) to specific questions and (2) the validity of subjects' reports of the number of remaining natural teeth. METHODS: We used a telephone screening methodology to identify dentate persons (at least one natural tooth remaining) who were 45 years old or older and resided in one of four counties of north Florida. At a second stage, a sample of the telephone screening participants was selected for further study, which consisted of a baseline in-person interview and a clinical examination. We compared the number of remaining teeth reported during the telephone interview with the number determined at baseline examination. RESULTS: The telephone method was effective at gathering tooth count information, although response rates varied with the level of specificity required. Almost all subjects reported the number of teeth at least at the nominal and ordinal levels, but fewer than three-fourths reported the number at the interval level. When the unit of analysis was the overall sample, self-reported number of teeth was a valid measure of the true number. When the unit of analysis was the individual subject, validity was associated with certain clinical and sociodemographic factors. CONCLUSIONS: When the unit of analysis is the overall sample, these results suggest that self-reported tooth counts during a telephone interview are sufficiently valid to meet all but the most stringent data requirements. When the unit of analysis is the individual subject, these tooth counts may not be valid, depending upon the degree of specificity required and subject characteristics.

Age Factors↗

PubMed1997

Comparability of telephone and face-to-face interviews in assessing axis I and II disorders.

OBJECTIVE: The present study examined the comparability of data obtained by telephone and face-to-face interviews for diagnosing axis I and II disorders. METHOD: Sixty young adults from the community were interviewed face-to-face and over the telephone regarding axis I disorders; another 60 subjects were interviewed twice regarding axis II disorders. The order of interviews was counterbalanced, and subjects with a history of disorder were oversampled. Agreement between telephone and face-to-face interviews was contrasted with interrater values, which were obtained by having a second interviewer rate a recording of the original interview. RESULTS: Interrater reliability was excellent. Agreement between telephone and face-to-face assessment was excellent for anxiety disorders and very good for major depressive disorder and alcohol and substance use disorders; agreement was problematic, however, for adjustment disorder with depressed mood. Strong support was shown for the validity of the axis II telephone assessment format. Small but consistent trends were noted for lower rates of psychopathology reported in the second interview. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study in which telephone and face-to-face assessments of axis I and II psychopathology were conducted with the same subjects assigned to conditions in a counterbalanced manner. The present findings provide qualified justification for the use of telephone interviews to collect axis I and II data. The apparent concerns do not appear sufficient to override the economic and logistic advantages of telephone interviewing.

Adolescent↗