Reminders Through Association & Prescription Adherence

University of Pennsylvania

Status: Terminated

Conditions: Medication Adherence

Treatments: Other: Reminders Through Association; Other: Baseline Control; Other: Active Control

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03697083

825556

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to develop behavioral interventions that provide effective tools that policy makers can use to help individuals avoid forgetting to follow-through on important behaviors and for individuals to use to help themselves. In the investigators past research, they have shown that reminders through association work in the lab setting. The investigators seek to understand how this strategy can work in the field, especially when people are trying to fulfill a health outcome.

Full description

Participants enter an online survey where they are asked to confirm that they plan to pick up a prescription, state what day they plan to pick up their prescription, and indicate the type of location where the prescription will be picked up (e.g., pharmacy, hospital, doctors office, etc.). Participants are asked to participate in a prescription reminder program in which they will receive up to eight text messages from the researchers and send up to three text messages to the researchers. Participants are then quizzed about the reminder program to ensure they understand what they are signing up for. Participants are further told that if they follow the directions outlined in the program they will be compensated for participating in this survey via their phone number.

Participants who wish to enroll in the reminder program will initiate the text messaging by texting "STARTXXXX" to number provided. This validates that the participants received the message, have the capacity to text, and are willing to text. Participants are then randomly assigned to one of three conditions. In the treatment condition, participants will be prompted to think of a reminder cue that will help them remember to pick up the prescription. In the active control condition, participants will be asked to think about where they will store their prescription. Participants in the baseline control condition will simply be thanked for enrolling.

Participants in the treatment and active control conditions then receive a series of text messages prior to the scheduled pick up date reminding them to pick up their medication. In addition, the text message will prompt participants to text a picture of their prescription receipt to validate that they followed-through on their behavior. If participants text us a picture of their receipt that follows the guidelines outlined in the survey, participants are compensated.

Enrollment: 777 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Participants must be capable of sending and receiving text and picture messages on their phone.

Exclusion criteria

• Participants will only be excluded if they participated in the pilot study in which the investigators enrolled 150 participants. These participants will be excluded when they attempt to text the investigators to enroll.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

---

777 participants in 3 patient groups

Reminders Through Association Arm

Experimental group

Description:

participants will be prompted to think of a reminder cue that will help them remember to pick up the prescription.

Treatment:

Other: Reminders Through Association

Active Control Arm

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants will be asked to think about where they will store their prescription.

Treatment:

Other: Active Control

Baseline Control Arm

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants are thanked for enrolling in the reminder program.

Treatment:

Other: Baseline Control