<p>Effectiveness of low-cost reminder package combined with case-based health education to improve hypertensive patients’ medication adherence: a clustered randomized controlled trial</p>

• DOI: 10.2147/ppa.s194667
• Publication Date: 2019-07-09T19:36:51Z
• Authors: Ying Shen; Taotao Wang; Min Gao; Xiaorou Zhu; Xing Zhang; Chao He; Yindong Li; Xinying Sun
• Keywords: Medicine (General); 4. Education; 05 social sciences; Multilevel modeling; Low-cost reminder package; Case-based Health education; 0506 political science; 3. Good health; 03 medical and health sciences; R5-920; 0302 clinical medicine; Patient Preference and Adherence; Medication adherence; Original Research

Medication adherence (MA) is a key factor for hypertensive patients' blood pressure control and forgetfulness is one of the main reasons that cause medication non-adherence. If effective, low-cost reminder package (LCRP) has great potentials for large-scale promotion. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of combining LCRP and health education to improve MA among hypertensive patients.A clustered randomized controlled trial was performed in Beijing. A total of 518 hypertensive patients recruited from 8 community health care centers were randomized to receive LCRP combined with case-based health education or usual care. Randomization was performed at community level. Multilevel modeling was used to evaluate the study effect.MA scores did not differ significantly at baseline between the intervention group and the control group. The results of multilevel modeling indicated that MA scores increased more in the intervention group, and the intervention effect on MA was 0.287 (95% CI: [0.103, 0.471], P=0.002). Patients' systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were not improved (SBP: difference=0.536, 95% CI [-3.207, 4.278]; DBP: difference=-0.927, 95% CI [-3.283, 1.428]).LCRP combined with case-based health education could significantly improve hypertensive patients' MA.