Randomised trial of SMS to improve testing for diabetes in women
Research type
Research Study
Full title
impRoving testing for cardiometabolic diseases in women with previous gestational diabetes mellitus: an exemplar study on implementation and evaluation of a novel dAta-DrIven rANdomised clinical Trial platform in primary care (RADIANT)
IRAS ID
297067
Contact name
Francesca Crowe
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Birmingham
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN13791687
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 2 months, 1 days
Research summary
The way we usually test new ways of supporting health in the NHS is using randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Here, we randomly divide a group of people into two or more groups and give one group a new intervention and compare the effects between the groups.
Finding and including patients in RCTS is usually done manually. Few of those who are suitable actually take part. This makes RCTs time-consuming, and it is hard to know if the intervention will work for everyone. This process can be streamlined by testing interventions using data which is routinely collected by electronic health systems. This approach can reduce the burden of taking part for both patients and health workers because we can easily select and invite suitable patients. Using these “data-enabled RCTs” also means we can follow up differences over time, to see whether the intervention has a lasting effect.
We want to answer clinical questions by running a data-enabled RCT. We have found a current health problem: a lack of testing for diabetes in women who developed diabetes during pregnancy (we call this gestational diabetes mellitus or GDM for short).
In collaboration with patients, we will develop a short animation explaining why it is important for women who had GDM to have yearly diabetes tests. We will send a text message with a link to the animation to women who had GDM, which encourages them to book a diabetes test with their GP.
We will select women who have had GDM and who already receive text messages from their GP and randomly divide them into two groups. One group will receive the text message and animation, the other will not.
We will collect anonymous information from electronic medical records to find out if more women who received the text message had diabetes tests.
REC name
South Central - Hampshire B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/SC/0069
Date of REC Opinion
20 May 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion