The girls were 14 years old on average, and nearly three-quarters had Medicaid or SCHIP health insurance. Most (84%) received their care in an academic clinic, and a sizable minority (40%) spoke Spanish.
Study results showed that the percentage of girls who received their next HPV vaccine dose within 1 month of the due date, the primary end point, was 52% among those whose parents signed up for reminders, 35% among those whose parents did not sign up, and 38% among those who served as historic controls, a significant difference.
The percentages were better in all three groups when it came to receipt of the vaccine dose within 4 months of the due date. But the value was still higher among girls whose parents signed up for reminders, at 65%, than among those whose parents did not sign up, at 51%, and the historic controls, at 53%.
In logistic regression analyses that controlled for type of insurance and type of clinic used for care (which differed across groups), girls whose parents signed up for text reminders were 2.03 times more likely than were the girls whose parents did not sign up and 1.83 times more likely than the historic control girls were to receive their next HPV vaccine dose within 1 month of the due date, significant differences.
Results of the HPV study have recently been published in Vaccine (2011;29:2537–41).