Mobile Technology Improves Therapy-Adherence Rates in Elderly Patients Undergoing Rehabilitation—A Crossover Design Study

In this publication the results of an empirical study are analyzes regarding the research question if a mobile application on a tablet computer, to support the drug intake and vital sign parameter documentation, affects adherence of elderly patients. For the achievement in the management of patients with hypertension adherence of their medication is essential. Patients with no prior knowledge of tablet computers and a coronary heart disease were included. All Patients were instructed personally into the mobile application “Medication Plan”, installed on an Apple iPad™. This study was performed in a crossover design with three sequences. The first sequence is the initial phase, followed by the interventional phase (28 days of using the app system) and at least the comparative phase (28 days of using a paper diary). The interventional and comparative phases were conducted alternately. Altogether, 24 patients (12 male; mean age 73.8 years) were registered. The subjectively assessed adherence (A 14 scale) was 50.0 before the study started (SD 3.44). After the enforcement of both interventions there was a significant increase, which was more pronounced after the intervention phase (54.0, SD 2.01) than the comparative phase (52.6, SD 2.49) (for all pairs p < 0.001). Furthermore, the medical conditions, or the number of drug intakes per day had no effect on the subjective adherence. For both blood pressure recordings (p < 0.001) and medication intake (p = 0.033) the obtained logging data showed a significantly stronger adherence for the medication-app than the paper diary system. The majority of participants (n = 22) denoted that they would like to use the medication-app in everyday life and do not need any further assistance. A mobile app for medication adherence strengthened objectively and subjectively metered adherence of elderly users folding rehabilitation.