GlowCaps Adherence Randomized Control Trial

University of Pennsylvania

Status: Completed

Conditions: Medical Adherence

Treatments: Device: GlowCap; Behavioral: Paid for adherence; Behavioral: Daily email, text message, or phone call reminders

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01756001

816493

10035604 (Other Grant/Funding Number)

Details and patient eligibility

About

This randomized control trial will explore interventions to promote medication adherence using a novel electronic device that can track daily pill use. 500 subjects will be randomized into 4 arms of the experiment. In addition to a control arm, our three arms will be: reminders, financial incentives, and reminders and financial incentives.

Full description

The investigators aim to study simple "behavioral economics" interventions that rely on consumer engagement to overcome cognitive and motivational barriers to medication adherence. Our goals are threefold: (1) to analyze which interventions are most effective in promoting medication adherence; (2) to analyze which interventions are most effective in promoting long-term habits that persist even when the interventions are removed; and (3) to understand how various patient characteristics (e.g. age or risk preferences) predict adherence or treatment receptivity. The investigators plan to track daily adherence of patients to a prescribed chronic disease drug using a new technology that electronically monitors when a pill bottle has been opened. In our control condition, patients will be monitored but not be provided with any reminders, adherence information, or incentive to adhere to their medication. Our three additional treatments will be either: (1) provide the patient with a daily email, text message, or phone call reminder to take the pill; (2) pay patients for each day that they take their pill (3) provide the patient with a daily email, text message, or phone call reminder to take the pill and pay patients for each day that they take their pill.

Enrollment: 119 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 84 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• patients diagnosed with chronic disease
• age 18-84

Exclusion criteria

• all patients not meeting inclusion criteria
• people who report that they currently use a day-of-the-week pill bottle
• people for whom AT&T does not have reliable wireless service for the Glowcap to communicate with the Way To Health platform

Trial design

119 participants in 4 patient groups

Control Arm

Description:

Arm 1 will be the Control arm, in which subjects will be instructed to use the GlowCap for their chronic disease medication but will not be provided with any specific incentive for taking the medication or with any aid in remembering to do so.

Treatment:

Device: GlowCap

Reminder Arm

Description:

Arm 2 will be the Reminder arm with daily email, text message, or phone call reminders for intervention. Subjects will be told that to aid in daily adherence to the medication, they will be provided with reminders for the first three months of the study and possibly again later in the study. At the start of the study, subjects will be given the option to receive daily email reminders, text message reminders, or daily (automated) phone call reminders to take their pill, each at a time of day that they choose. The default setting will be for subjects to receive both text and email reminders at 8AM each day. Subjects will be instructed on how to change their settings if they would like to receive a different set of reminders at different points in time.

Treatment:

Device: GlowCap

Behavioral: Daily email, text message, or phone call reminders

Incentives Arm

Description:

Arm 3 will be the financial incentives arm, in which subjects will be paid for adherence. Their total earnings will be administered at the end of the experiment through the WTH platform.

Treatment:

Device: GlowCap

Behavioral: Paid for adherence

Incentives and Reminders Arm

Description:

Arm 4 will be the financial incentives and reminders arm, in which subjects will be paid for adherence. Their total earnings will be administered at the end of the experiment through the WTH platform. They will also receive daily email, text message, or phone call reminders for intervention. Subjects will be told that to aid in daily adherence to the medication, they will be provided with reminders for the first three months of the study and possibly again later in the study. At the start of the study, subjects will be given the option to receive daily email reminders, text message reminders, or daily (automated) phone call reminders to take their pill, each at a time of day that they choose. The default setting will be for subjects to receive both text and email reminders at 8AM each day. Subjects will be instructed on how to change their settings if they would like to receive a different set of reminders at different points in time.

Treatment:

Device: GlowCap

Behavioral: Daily email, text message, or phone call reminders

Behavioral: Paid for adherence