In a presentation at the recent European Respiratory Society International Congress, researchers conducted a study to assess the usefulness of text messaging support from general practice (GP) in enhancing medication adherence among patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

The authors wrote, “Approximately half of patients with asthma and COPD do not take their medication as prescribed. Text message prompts delivered through primary care present an opportunity to improve inhaler adherence and symptom control at scale.”

The primary objective was to ascertain if regular, supportive text messages could enhance adherence to prescribed medications and improve symptom control in these patient populations.

In this randomized, controlled trial, participants were randomized in a 1:1 ratio into two groups: an intervention group, which received Short Message Service messages (commonly referred to as text messages) plus usual care, and a control group, which received usual care only.

The intervention group received 23 supportive text messages over 26 weeks, reminding them to take their preventer inhaler and explaining the significance of treatment and adherence. The control group received standard care.

Medication adherence was the primary outcome, which was assessed via an online survey conducted at the initiation of the study and again at 13 and 26 weeks.

A total of 5,873 participants were randomized in the study, with 2,929 designated to the intervention group and 2,944 designated to the control group. At 13 and 26 weeks, self-reported medication adherence was significantly greater in the intervention group compared to the control group for asthma and COPD patients.

Moreover, among asthma patients in the intervention group, there were also longer intervals between inhaler prescriptions and symptom control, measured by the Asthma Control Test, which was meaningfully better in the intervention group at both 13 weeks (P <.001) and 26 weeks (P = .002). The researchers also noted that no significant effect on symptom control was observed for COPD patients and that there were no variances in healthcare utilization.

The authors concluded that a simple and low-cost text message intervention, sent via GP practices, can have a small but noteworthy impact on medication adherence in patients with asthma or COPD, with enhancements in symptom control for patients with asthma. Implementing such an intervention can be practicably applied at scale.

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