Whatsapp: A Tool for Adherence to Asymptomatic Chronic-Disease Drug Therapies?

Abstract

Studies have shown that mobile health (mHealth) technologies are increasingly being successfully used in control programs for symptomatic diseases, such as cancer and HIV, as methods of behavioral intervention to enhance patient adherence to treatments. The objective of this research was to evaluate the potential of WhatsApp messages as an intervention method to improve adherence to the treatment of two asymptomatic diseases: hypertension and diabetes. A controlled trial was conducted with 499 participants from the basic health units of Maringá, Paraná, Brazil. They received 58 WhatApp messages over three months with information about the importance of adherence to drug therapy. Adherence to the therapy was assessed by the Morisky-Green test (MGT). The analysis of the efficacy of the intervention was performed by comparing the MGT test results before and after the messages were sent. The results showed an expressive difference in adherence to the drug therapy for the group that received the WhatsApp messages (67.5%) compared to those who did not receive them (58.5%). However, in contrast to our expectations, there was no significant association between adherence and the intervention group. WhatsApp can be used as a welfare technology in various health-related areas, however it was concluded that, for asymptomatic diseases, mHealth technology interventions can be useful if associated with other strategic processes.