Review: mHealth text messages promote medication adherence

(HealthDay)—Mobile health (mHealth) short message service text messages can improve medication adherence, according to a review published online July 27 in the Journal of Clinical Nursing.

Tracy DeKoekkoek, R.N., from Michigan State University in East Lansing, and colleagues conducted an integrative review of the evidence for mobile mHealth text messages for promoting medication adherence. Data were included from 13 relevant studies that implemented a text-message intervention and measured medication adherence to a prescribed oral medication as a primary outcome. The quality of methodology and measures of adherence were assessed in the articles.

The researchers found that in nine studies, adherence rates improved between 15.3 and 17.8 percent with use of text messages to promote medication adherence. Improvement in medication adherence was seen with text messages that were standardized, tailored, one- or two-way, and timed either daily, weekly, or monthly to medication regimen.

"This review established a scientific basis for text messages as an intervention to improve medication adherence across multiple diseases," the authors write. "Future large rigorous randomized trials are needed to further test text messaging interventions."

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