We aimed to send out the reminders at two weeks, but due to practical circumstances relating to clinical administration and postal service delays reminders were sent after six weeks.
As a reminder, many delayed updating to iOS 8 last year because Apple required a lot of free storage.
The primary aim was to determine how SMS medication reminders reduced delayed and missed medications doses; the secondary aim included determining patient satisfaction with and demand for SMS-based interventions.
It is possible that once patients know they will receive a reminder they may delay response until the reminder is received.
A second study from South Africa, utilized SMS reminders when patients delayed in opening their pill bottles and reported increased tuberculosis cure (RR 2.32, 95% CI 1.60 to 3.36) and smear conversion (RR 1.62, 95% CI 1.09 to 2.42) rates compared to DOTS.
Where responses delayed beyond two weeks, a telephone reminder was sent through the parents.
This suggests that if senior participants delayed taking medication, when they received reminders they had a higher likelihood of improving their adherence than did those who lacked a strong intention to take their medication and missed taking it despite the reminder.
Participants were given ample time of at least one week to fill the questionnaires and reminders sent to those who delayed to return the filled questionnaires.
Retrospective analysis of an intervention in South Africa using SMS reminders sent to 18 tuberculosis patients who delayed in opening their wireless pill bottles showed improved health compared to 72 control patients who received no SMS reminder (31).
These findings suggest that SMS medication reminders effectively decreased the incidence of delayed and missed doses and enhanced patient adherence to medication.
The rain on Tuesday, which delayed play for several hours, was only the latest reminder of what Roland Garros was still missing.
