THE IMPACT OF USING A SMARTPHONE-BASED APPLICATION ON MEDICATION ADHERENCE IN PEOPLE WITH HEART FAILURE

Medication adherence in patients with heart failure is low and have a negative
effect on the clinical treatment process. Adherence can increase the burden on the health system and one
of the goals of care in patients with heart failure is to improve their medication adherence. The purpose
of this study was to determine the impact of using a smartphone-based application on medication
adherence in people with heart failure.
Materials &Methods: This is a randomized clinical trial with control group in ImamHospital, Mashhad
University of Medical Sciences in 1397. In this study, 120 patients with heart failure hospitalized in
cardiac care unit were randomly selected and randomly assigned quadruple blocks without replacement
were allocated to two groups of control (n = 60) and intervention (n = 60). In this study, the patients in
the control group were under the current care of the hospital. An Android-based interactive smartphone
application developed in partnership with the developer, and its management panel site was designed.
Patients in the intervention group, in addition to common care, received a smartphone-capable
application and used this application every day for 3 months. Data were analyzed by SPSS software
version 16 using independent and paired t-test, Chi-square, Fisher's exact analysis and Cohen effect size.
Results: Based on the results, compared to the control group, the drug follow-up score of patients with
heart failure after using the smartphone-based application was significantly increased (P <0.001) and
the effect size was 3.24 with a confidence interval 95% (3.81, 2.68). Changes in medication adherence
in the intervention group were significantly more than the control group, which means improving the
medication adherence of patients with heart failure in the intervention group compared to the control
group.
Conclusion: Using a smartphone-based application can improve medication adherence in people with
heart failure. Based on the results of this study, the use of applications to promote medication adherence
and management of patients with heart failure is suggested