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Text Messaging Support for Patients Diagnosed With Impaired Glucose Tolerance During Pregnancy: Nonrandomized Pre-Post Implementation Study Assessing Impact on Postpartum Transitions of Care

Kumar NR, Bender W, Durnwald C

Journal of medical Internet research, 2026

503 participants

Abstract

Background: Patients with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) identified during pregnancy who do not develop gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) often do not receive additional interventions for their long-term metabolic risks.

Objective: This nonrandomized pre-post implementation study reports the design process and initial program evaluation for Better Follow-up of Impaired Glucose Tolerance (BRIDGE), a 12-week text-based postpartum support program promoting hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) completion and primary care provider (PCP) visit scheduling for patients diagnosed with IGT during pregnancy, assessing improvement in desired postpartum transition milestones. The 19-month program was divided into 2 arms lasting 9.5 months each, BRIDGE- (SMS text messaging support alone; October 2021-July 2022) and BRIDGE+ (SMS text messaging and IGT-focused postpartum visit; July 2022-April 2023). We aimed to assess whether BRIDGE improved desired postpartum transition milestones.

Methods: Patients were eligible for BRIDGE if they received prenatal care at the study site (a northeastern US academic tertiary care center), were diagnosed with IGT during pregnancy, never developed GDM, and could receive English text messages. We performed a program evaluation using a pre/postimplementation design, comparing outcomes for the BRIDGE population to a 19-month historical population. Primary outcomes were (1) completion of HbA1c testing by 1 year postpartum and (2) PCP visit scheduling by 12 weeks…

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a randomized trial, done in people. Its evidence level is 2 of 5 (High · randomized trial). Randomized trials of a reasonable size are the strongest single-study design. Reported size: 503 participants or records.

How the five levels of evidence work. The level is assigned automatically from the abstract and can be wrong, so check the paper.

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