Evaluation of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and postal survey in follow-up of children and adolescents discharged from psychiatric outpatient treatment: a randomized controlled trial

Claes Andersson; Susanne Danielsson; Gunilla Silfverberg-Dymling; Gunnel Löndahl; Björn Axel Johansson

doi:10.1186/2193-1801-3-77

Evaluation of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and postal survey in follow-up of children and adolescents discharged from psychiatric outpatient treatment: a randomized controlled trial

Springerplus. 2014 Feb 8:3:77. doi: 10.1186/2193-1801-3-77. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Claes Andersson¹, Susanne Danielsson², Gunilla Silfverberg-Dymling², Gunnel Löndahl², Björn Axel Johansson³

Affiliations

¹ Health and Society, Department of Criminology, Malmö University, SE-205 06 Malmö, Sweden ; Division of Psychiatry, Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
² Psychiatry Skåne, Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Skåne University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden.
³ Psychiatry Skåne, Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Skåne University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden ; Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden ; Clinical Health Promotion Centre, Department of Health Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.

Abstract

Systematic evaluation of child and adolescent psychiatric outpatient treatment is important but time-consuming. The aim of this paper was to study whether Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is a more effective method than a questionnaire sent by post when following up outpatient treatment in child and adolescent psychiatry. Eighty patients were recruited from a child and adolescent psychiatric outpatient unit in Sweden. One parent of each of the patients was randomized to complete the BCFPI follow-up form, using either IVR (n = 40) or postal survey (n = 40) one month after discharge. The response rate for complete answers was 65% in the IVR group and 38% in the postal survey group (p = 0.014). There was less need for reminders in the IVR group (p = 0.000). IVR is a promising and cost-effective method for evaluating evidence-based treatment in child and adolescent psychiatric care.

Keywords: Brief child and family phone interview (BCFPI); Child and adolescent psychiatry; Evaluation; Interactive voice response (IVR); Postal survey.