Using Reminders to Improve Adherence to Treatment
Resources are available for creating reminder systems to improve adherence.
Achieving good adherence to treatment is a challenge that health-related disciplines have been working to improve for decades.
Both when taking medication and when attending intervention or follow-up appointments, the dropout rate is very high, and the negative impact this has on health is well known. The WHO has warned in numerous publications of its importance, especially in the case of chronic diseases. What can be done about it?
The causes of non-adherence to therapy.
Several studies have analyzed the causes of this high lack of adherence to treatment, finding five major factors:
- Socioeconomic factors
- Treatment-related factors
- Patient-related factors
- Disease-related factors
- Factors related to the healthcare team
All of these interact with each other and play a fundamental role in explaining why many patients end up abandoning a treatment they have started. why many patients end up abandoning a treatment they have started, even when they have already started to feel the effects of the disease.even when they have already begun to notice the beneficial effects of the treatment.
How to solve the problem? The power of reminders
Among the strategies proposed to improve adherence, as early as 1988 a study published by Masur and Anderson analyzed the possibility of using reminderssuch as calling the patient by telephone or sending a reminder card among the behavioral techniques for improving adherence.
With the advent of cell phones, different studies have investigated the efficacy of using reminders through sms or daily alarms, with smartphones, the possibility of using this kind of resources through APPs that do this job opens up. that perform this task.
Various monographs such as the 2017 SEFH monograph and reviews of publications point to the importance of reminders as a way to increase therapeutic adherence. A small detail such as encountering a reminder at the right time can make treatment continue without interruptionThis is especially true when we are several days in a row without direct contact with a health professional to supervise our case.
Therefore, everything indicates that this kind of simple stimuli are capable of improving the degree of commitment that patients have with respect to therapy.
The case of mental health services
Particularly important is to achieve better adherence to treatment in mental health patients, as studies of mental health patients have provided evidence that depression, anxiety and stress are predictors of poorer adherence to treatment..
Studies conducted on the perception of patients who are provided with reminder tools suggest that the vast majority of them accept this type of help and are satisfied with it once it has been implemented.
Studies and reviews also show that there is a need to help adolescents and young people, who are more related to new technologies.For these patients, support through mobile applications can be especially interesting, not only as a way of reminding them of alarms but also as a way of receiving psychoeducational material or support from other people in their situation, factors that are also known to be relevant when it comes to improving adherence to treatment.
PsicoReg: an application with multiple resources
Along these lines, one of the APPs that is working very well is PsicoReg (psicoreg.com), a powerful tool that allows sharing psychoeducational material with the patient as well as appointments through the APP, make records, design task follow-ups, store the clinical history, and, in addition, facilitates compliance with the and also facilitates compliance with data protection regulations.
Through a simple and easy-to-use interface for both the psychologist and the patient, this application allows both to be connected between sessions, so that the influence of psychotherapy is felt even when the person in need of professional help is not in the office. Resources like PsicoReg help patients adopt habits consistently over weeks and months, something that is essential not only for them to keep going to meet with therapists, but also for the intervention to work and for the person to see their quality of life improve.
If you are interested in learning more about the resources that PsicoReg makes available to mental health professionals, access the contact information for PsicoReg team members by clicking here.
(Updated at Apr 13 / 2024)