Previously submitted to: JMIR mHealth and uHealth (no longer under consideration since Aug 07, 2018)
Date Submitted: Feb 19, 2016
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Oregon Reminders: Reducing HIV Transmission by Personalized Medication Reminders through a Statewide eHealth Program
Background:
Oregon Reminders is a SMS-based program that offers custom text, email, and voice reminders to take medications daily, refill prescriptions monthly, and get tested for HIV and other STDs every three to six months. A survey was done with current users in order to assess the effectiveness of Oregon Reminders.
Objective:
The primary goals were to evaluate the extent to which Oregon Reminders influenced users’ HIV testing behaviors and medication adherence. The evaluation was also designed to help us understand users’ demographics, sexual and drug use risk behaviors, methods of learning about the service, and willingness to discuss HIV with others.
Methods:
We conducted a survey with Oregon Reminders users to assess the service’s efficacy and user satisfaction. Oregon Reminders users were emailed requests to participate in an anonymous and voluntary online survey administered through Survey Monkey.
Results:
Oregon Reminders proved to be an effective way to assist in HIV/STDs treatment and testing. The majority of participants indicated that Oregon Reminders helped them remember to test for HIV/STDs, and more than a quarter reported testing for HIV more frequently since signing up for Oregon Reminders.
Conclusions:
The survey data suggests that Oregon Reminders and similar programs can help users maintain or improve healthy behaviors, which ultimately serves to better control the HIV epidemic. Our results support the existing literature showing that text- and email-based reminder systems for HIV testing and medication adherence can be effective.
Citation
