Epileptic patients' willingness to receive cell-phone based medication reminder in Northwest Ethiopia

Poor adherence compromises medication treatment effectiveness which results in suboptimal illness control. This can lead to increased use of healthcare services, reduction in patients' quality of life and increased healthcare costs. Reminding patients of their medication intake increases their adherence. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the willingness of epileptic patients to receive cell-phone based medication reminders and its associated factors in Northwest Ethiopia.

Institution based cross sectional study was conducted in the study period scheduled from March 1 to April 30, 2018 to interview 422 study participants at University of Gondar Comprehensive and Specialized Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia. Systematic random sampling was used to select 422 epileptic patients. A structured interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect data and analyzed by using SPSS version 21. Binary and multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the determinant factors for willingness to receive cell-phone based medication reminders. P < 0.05 at 95% confidence interval was considered statistically significant.

A total of 394 (93% response rate) respondents were interviewed. The majority of respondents 262 (66.5%) owned a cellphone. Among the participants 271 (68.8%) were willing to receive reminder messages. In the multivariate regression analysis; living in urban areas (AOR = 5.63, 95% CI; 3.18-9.96), experience of forgetting things (AOR = 2.63, 95% CI; 1.44-4.80), forgetting to take Long-term Antiepileptic Drugs (AEDs) (AOR = 2.17, 95% CI; 1.06-4.43) and average monthly income ≥2000 birr (AOR = 2.43, 95% CI; 1.03-5.75) were significantly associated with willingness to receive cell-phone medication reminders. Pertaining to marital status; being married (AOR = 5.75, 95% CI; 1.11-29.70) or divorced (AOR = 5.15, 95% CI; 1.29-20.49) participants were also more willing to receive cell-phone medication reminders as compared to singles.

Most respondents have a cellphone and were willing to use it as a medication reminder. Marital status, place of residence, average monthly income, experience of forgetting things since they started AED, forget to take AED are the most notable factors that are associated with the willingness of patients to receive cell phone drug reminder messages.