Chung And Naya Flashcards
Aim
To electronically assess compliance with an oral asthma medication
Methodology and sample
- Asthma patient, both male and female aged 18 to 55 all having a history of asthma.
What was the initial a screening. And what was followed
An initial screening period of 2 to 3 weeks was then followed by a 12 week treatment. During which patient took asthma medication two times a day.
How are tablets dispensed?
Tablets were dispensed in a screw top bottle, which has been filled with track cap medication event monitoring systems, also known as MEMS
What did MEMS DO
Record the date and time each time the cap was removed and replaced
What instructions were written on the bottle
Take one tablet in the morning and one later in the evening, approximately 12 hours apart, do not take the tablets during meal times
Patient were also asked to remove the tablets and replace the cap quickly due to the tablets, being sensitive to moisture
Why were patients told to remove tablets quickly?
As the tablets were sensitive to moisture
What was each removal of the track cap presume to be?
To indicate a single medication use event
What does it mean if the cap was removed multiple times
A cap was removed multiple during a very short period of time more than once than the device would recognize this, but would not record the multiple openings
What happened if the bottle was left open for more than 15 min
Then the device would record one additional event
What was something option that the patient could or could not do
Patients were not required to keep diaries about their treatment, and we were not questions about the tablet, nor was it discussed in the present
Ethical considerations
All participants gave concent and to be a part of the research study, but they did not know that the electronic monitoring device was attached to the medication, but this was done to avoid bias
What were the dependent variable?
Tablets count
Track cap compliance e
What does tablet count mean?
The number of dispense tablets minus the number of returning tablets
What does track cap compliance mean?
Number of events divided by the number of prescribed tablets
Results
-80% compliance was measured for track cap and 89 compliance for tablet count
The difference could be because they lost medication or were trying to hide noncompliance by removing tablets or a symphony that it was easier to remove them all in one yet they still complied with treatment to a regimen this could be counted by taking out one tablet at a time
-the track cab does a suggested that one participates removed a whole week worth in one goal. It might have been to put them in weekly medication dispensers so they could keep track whether or not they have taken their tablet.
-64% of the participants had a full attendance of the track cap 20% sold under compliant 10% showed noncompliant for eight days
Conclusion
Medication event monitoring system, such as track caps can be effective in measuring compliance
Weakness
A weakness of the study is that there were ethical issues that were not result of despite the study receiving ethic and approving for example, the participants were deceived at how they were being monitored. It is not clear whether the participants were fully debriefed at the end of the study, this type of deception may have caused the participants or distress.
Another weakness is that the participants might have been showing demand characteristics rates of addherance we’re high for the study. However, participants were made aware that their appearance would be measured further research would benefit from a double blind study of participants were not aware that their head was being measured to gain a more accurate understanding of what degree patients comply under normal circumstances
Strength
One strength is that it was a useful study to measure addherance, for example, by measuring appearance remotely using track cap researchers were able to measure appearance with minimum destruction to patient as the
Adherence was measured at their own home they would normally medicate their medication to the study had high ecological validity
Another strength is that compared to self reports and interviews, electronic monitoring is an objective and quantitative analysis of adherence to medical advice for example although there is a chance that participant would cheat the system This was for less self-report we are socially, desirable buyers make them over estimate their appearance. This makes the result of the study more valid
