The Potential of Sms Based Automated Reminders Towards Enhancing Adherence to Clinical Instructions for Dementia Patients: a Case of Healthcare Givers

Abstract

Dementia condition presents a challenge with regard to the ability of a person with this condition to adhere to treatment regimes. Provision of healthcare service to persons with dementia remains a challenge because the condition negatively impact memory retention and thus, persons with this condition tends to easily forget even the most important things, including medication and clinical appointments. Traditionally, the care of a person with dementia will be delegated to a caregiver, who in most cases is a next of kin, guardian or neighbour. Caregivers face their own personal challenges and this may result in scenarios where they fail to remember the activities that need to be done by the person under their care, especially those relating to adherence to treatment regime. The potential of technology has been explored and evidence show that it can aid in the provision and support of healthcare services. The growth in the use and adoption of mobile technology is viewed as a potential tool that could aid in enhancing support for care givers. Existing studies has concentrated on evaluating outcome of technology use among persons with dementia. This study sought to evaluate the potential of an SMS-based automated reminder system towards enabling care givers to ensure adherence to clinical appointment, for persons with dementia. The study adopted exploratory approach; a mobile based prototype was designed to send SMS reminders to respondents at predefined periods, reminding them of the clinical appointments for person under their care, as the appointment date approached. The development of the prototype used agile methodology. A sample size of 30 caregivers, was used. Adherence data was collected from the caregivers covering 15 clinical appointments, spread over a period of four months. Outcome of the analysis of the data showed that the gender and age attributes did not influence the level of adherence; adherence increased consistently across the age groups by 19.7%, while for gender, a slight difference was observed where adherence among the females increased by 8.2% while in the males it increased by 10.98%. Overall, adherence increased by 9.79%, for the sample of 30 respondents in the study, an indication that SMS based reminders had potential improving adherence to clinical appointments for caregivers in dementia cases.