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

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.