`Mambo' Text Messages Help HIV Patients Stick With Drug Regimen in Study
Patients with HIV maintained drug regimens, reducing the amount of virus in their blood when health-care workers sent them a weekly reminder text message, a study found.
The phone messages helped 12 percent of patients better stay with their treatment, compared with a group that did not have mobile follow-up, according to the research, published in the medical journal The Lancet. About 9 percent more patients saw the amount of virus in their blood drop.
The study followed 538 people starting anti-viral drug treatment at three clinics in Kenya. About half of them received texts at weekly intervals. They had to respond to the message “Mambo,” Kiswahili for “How are you,” with either “Sawa” if they were doing well, or “Shida” if they weren’t. Those who gave the latter response or didn’t answer got a follow-up call from the clinic.
“Ensuring strict adherence to immunosuppressive antiretroviral regimens remains a formidable challenge,” Benjamin Chi and Jeffrey Stringer of the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia, said in an accompanying editorial.
The messages, which cost about 5 cents each, help one additional patient achieve viral suppression for every 12 ones texted, the study said. The research, which ran for about a one- and-a-half years, was led by Richard Lester of the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control in Vancouver.
“The SMS intervention was well received by patients, many of whom reported that they felt ‘‘like someone cares,’’ the researchers wrote.
To contact the reporter on this story: Eva von Schaper in Munich at evonschaper@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Phil Serafino at pserafino@bloomberg.net.
Rate this Page