Improving adherence to acne treatment: the emerging role of application software. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • OBJECTIVE: To examine recent studies on the effect of mobile and electronic (ME)-health technology on adherence to acne treatment. BACKGROUND: With emerging use of ME-health technology, there is a growing interest in evaluating the effectiveness of the tools on medication adherence. Examples of ME-health technology-based tools include text message-based pill reminders and Web-based patient education. METHODS: MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science were searched for articles on adherence to acne treatment published through November 2013. A combination of search terms such as "acne" and "adherence" or "compliance" were used. RESULTS: Adherence to oral acne medication was higher than for topical acne medication. The frequency of office visits was also an influencing factor for acne treatment adherence. The telephone-based reminders on a daily basis did not improve acne patients' medication adherence, whereas the Web-based educational tools on a weekly basis had a positive effect on medication adherence in acne treatment. CONCLUSION: In using ME-health interventions, factors such as medication dosage forms, frequency of intervention, and patients' preferences should be taken into consideration. Developing disease-specific text message reminders may be helpful to increase adherence rates. In addition, a combination of text message reminders with another type of intervention may improve medication adherence.

published proceedings

  • Clin Cosmet Investig Dermatol

altmetric score

  • 0.75

author list (cited authors)

  • Park, C., Kim, G., Patel, I., Chang, J., & Tan, X. i.

citation count

  • 20

complete list of authors

  • Park, Chanhyun||Kim, Gilwan||Patel, Isha||Chang, Jongwha||Tan, Xi

publication date

  • January 2014