Use of a Smartphone Application for Prompting Oral Medication Adherence Among Adolescents and Young Adults With Cancer.
Yelena P Wu, Lauri A Linder, Patsaporn Kanokvimankul and 4 others
PMID 29251285WHAT IT FOUND
Adolescents and young adults with cancer who used a smartphone reminder app for eight weeks reported taking medications immediately upon prompting 76% to 100% of the time in 58% of weekly reports.
Most found the app easy to set up and useful, though this uncontrolled pilot did not test whether adherence improved.
Key findings
01Participants responded to initial medication reminder prompts 90% of the time on average, based on data downloaded from the app server.
02In 58% of self-reported weekly responses, participants took medications immediately upon receiving reminders 76% to 100% of the time.
03Seventy-four percent of participants agreed the application helped them take oral medications as prescribed, and 87% would recommend medication reminder applications to peers with cancer.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
There was no control group, so it is impossible to know whether adherence improved compared to usual care or whether the app simply captured existing good adherence. The sample was small (23 analysed) and drawn from a single geographic area, limiting generalisability. Self-reported adherence data may be subject to recall or social desirability bias, although app server data provided some objective corroboration. The study was designed to assess feasibility and acceptability, not efficacy, so it does not prove the intervention works.
Declared interests
The authors contracted with Dosecast to provide the enhanced version of the application at no cost to participants, paying for these services using research funding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the high rates of self-reported immediate medication taking as evidence that the app improved adherence. Because this was a single-group feasibility study with no control comparison, these figures describe what participants did while using the app, not whether the app caused better adherence than standard care.