A Spanish Pillbox App for Elderly Patients Taking Multiple Medications

Overview

Background: Non-adherence and medication errors are common among patients with complex drug regimens. Applications for smartphones and tablets are known to be effective for improving adherence but they have not been tested in elderly patients with such complex chronic conditions, their older age meaning they tend to have less experience with this type of technology. Objective: to design, implement and evaluate a medication self-management application for elderly patients taking multiple medications called ALICE with the intention of improving adherence and safe medication use. Methods: A single-blind randomized controlled trial was conducted with a control and an experimental group (N=99) in Spain in 2013. The characteristics of ALICE were specified based on the suggestions of 3 nominal groups with a total of 23 patients and a focus group with 7 professionals. ALICE was designed for Android and iOS and to allow the personalisation of prescriptions and medical advice, showing images of each of the medications (the packaging and the medication itself) together with alerts and multiple reminders for each alert. The randomly subjects in the control group received oral and written information on the safe use of their medications and the experimental group used ALICE for three months. Pre- and post- measures included: rate of missed doses and medication errors reported by patients, Morisky Medication Adherence 4 items Scale scores, level of independence, self-perceived health status and biochemical test results of the patients. In the experimental group, data were also collected on their previous experience with information and communication technologies, their rating of ALICE and their perception of the level of independence they had achieved. The inter-group intervention effects were calculated by univariate linear models and ANOVA, with the pre- to post-intervention differences as the dependent variables.

A tablet-based medication self-management app (called ALICE) was designed to help patients to remember to take all their medications, at the correct doses, distinguish between drugs to avoid confusions, avoid known potential interactions and common errors in use of the medications and know how to properly store the medications. The app design was based on suggestions extracted from 3 nominal groups with a total of 23 patients and a focus group with 7 professionals (3 physicians and 4 pharmacists). The tablet used was selected on the basis of the need for a device with an at least 7-inch, easy to use touch screen, ensuring that users would only have to follow simple instructions and tap on some icons on the screen. Specifically, the BQ Verne Plus 3G with an LCD Tactile screen was chosen in the case of Android, and an iPad 2 with Wi-Fi + 3G in the case of the iOS. This study has been approved and financed by the Spanish Ministry of Health, Equality, and Social Policy. The Spanish Research Health Agency (FIS), Independent Clinical Research, project number EC11-527. The Experimental Research Ethics Committee of Miguel Hernández University (DPS-JJM-003-11) approved the trial.