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A third of patients prescribed blood pressure or lipid-lowering drugs to prevent coronary heart disease or stroke fail to take their medicines properly, but text messages sent to remind them when to take their medicines could improve adherence.
A total of 151 patients were sent a text message at different intervals for 26 weeks. A control group of 152 patients received no text messages. Medicines adherence was assessed at six months.
Of the patients who were sent text messages, 9% did not take their medicines at all or took them for fewer than 22 of 28 days, compared with 25% of patients who were not sent text messages. Text messages prompted 65% of patients to take their medicines and 13% to resume treatment, according to the research published in PLOS ONE (online, 5 December 2014)[1]
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