Improving treatment adherence for blood pressure lowering via mobile phone SMS-messages in South Africa
An article from BMC Family Practice
From the results posted in PubMed: "Most participants were comfortable with the technology of using SMS-text messages. Messages were experienced as acceptable, relevant and useful to a broad range of participants. The SMS-content, the respectful tone and the delivery (timing of reminders and frequency) and the relational aspect of trial participation (feeling cared for) were all highly valued. A subgroup who benefitted the most, were those who had been struggling with adherence due to high levels of personal stress. The intervention appeared to coincide with their readiness for change, and provided practical and emotional support for improving adherence behaviour. Change may have been facilitated through increased acknowledgement of their health status and attitudinal change towards greater self-responsibility. Complex interaction of psycho-social stressors and health service problems were reported as broader challenges to adherence behaviours."
| Study Region | South Africa |
| Organization | South African Medical Research Council |
| Issue or Problem | Increase blood pressure therapy adherence |
| Tech Medium | SMS |
| Technology Device | Mobile phones |
| mFHAST Implication | Opportunity for SMS reminders to improve adherence to blood pressure therapies |
More links
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Link to original research articleAdherence support for treatment of raised blood pressure, delivered via SMS-text message on the patient's own phone, was found to be acceptable, relevant and helpful, even for those who already had their own reminder systems in place. Our findings begin to identify for whom and what core elements of the SMS-text message intervention appear to work best in a low-resource operational setting, issues that future research should explore in greater depth.