Electronic reminders can help TB patients stay on medication in China: study

By Park Sae-jin Posted : September 30, 2015, 16:31 Updated : September 30, 2015, 16:31
Giving electronic reminders to tuberculosis (TB) patients in China can reduce the amount of medication doses they miss by half, Chinese and British researchers said Tuesday.

Researchers from China's National Center for Tuberculosis Control and Prevention and Britain's London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine conducted a trial with 4,173 patients from the provinces of Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Hunan and Chongqing.

Patients either received text message reminders, an electronic medication monitor, both, or no reminders for their six-month treatment period.

Patients receiving no reminders missed taking 29.9 percent of their medication doses and patients receiving text messages missed 27.3 percent of their doses, according to the results published in the U.S. journal PLOS Medicine.

However, patients with an electronic medication monitor box, which beeped if not opened at the agreed time, only missed 17 percent of their medication doses. Patients who received both text messages and an electronic medication monitor missed just 13.9 percent of medication doses.

TB treatment usually lasts for six months and is effective if taken fully, but patients missing drug treatment doses is a major problem, which increases the risk of having a relapse of TB or developing TB drug resistance, the researchers said.

By Ruchi Singh
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