Credit score: Pixabay/CC0 Public Area
A research printed in JAMA reveals textual content message reminders for sufferers who delay refilling their medicines did not assist enhance how repeatedly they refilled medicines over a yr.
The research enrolled over 9,000 sufferers in a randomized pragmatic scientific trial and included illustration from a various inhabitants throughout subgroups, together with females, Hispanic ethnicity and Spanish-speaking sufferers, all teams who could be historically underrepresented in scientific trials.
“There are a lot of studies that focus on using technology to improve health care behaviors. However, it’s unclear and under-studied whether text message reminders are effective for a sustained period, given they have become a commonly used practice in health care settings,” mentioned first creator Michael Ho, MD, professor adjoint within the division of drugs and cardiology on the College of Colorado College of Medication on the College of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.
“That’s one of the reasons why we wanted to focus on text message reminders for refilling medication in this study, which we were hoping would also decrease serious health issues.”
The researchers in contrast several types of textual content messaging methods to traditional care to enhance treatment refill adherence for power cardiovascular medicines. Messages had been delivered when sufferers had a refill hole of greater than seven days and despatched in both English or Spanish based mostly on sufferers’ language choice.
“An important factor of our research was to include representation from a range of backgrounds, since different cultures and experiences can shape preferences for communication methods and result in varying technology behaviors,” mentioned senior creator Sheana Bull, Ph.D., MPH, professor emerita and advisor to the mHealth Impression Laboratory on the Colorado College of Public Well being on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus.
The mHealth Impression Laboratory is an incubator for revolutionary well being expertise and illness administration initiatives.
Efficient to start with however not for long run
The analysis discovered refill adherence over the primary three months improved by 5 share factors and the median size of preliminary gaps was lowered by roughly 5 days, that means sufferers had 5 extra days of their treatment provide.
Nevertheless, textual content message reminders weren’t efficient in bettering refill adherence at 12 months, no matter the kind of message: generic textual content messages, messages utilizing persuasive communication methods known as behavioral nudges or behavioral nudges, plus a chatbot. This was constant for all genders and races, and there was no distinction between the completely different textual content message strategies.
“Chronic medical conditions are increasing and controlling these conditions often requires patients to take medications long term. It’s important to identify strategies to help patients take their medications regularly to prevent these medical conditions from worsening,” provides Ho.
“Our study shows adherence to chronic cardiovascular medications was low over 12 months, and therefore, we need to test new strategies to improve this, especially as more people are developing chronic medical conditions.”
The researchers will subsequent research if extra superior digital applied sciences incorporating machine studying and synthetic intelligence can enhance long run behaviors associated to treatment refills.
Extra info:
JAMA (2024).
Supplied by
CU Anschutz Medical Campus
Quotation:
Textual content messages could be ineffective as treatment refill reminders, research exhibits (2024, December 31)
retrieved 31 December 2024
from https://medicalxpress.com/information/2024-10-text-messages-ineffective-medication-refill.html
This doc is topic to copyright. Aside from any truthful dealing for the aim of personal research or analysis, no
half could also be reproduced with out the written permission. The content material is offered for info functions solely.
