Adherent Health, LLC, a mobile health engagement advisory focused on medication safe-use, adherence, and health outcomes attainment, announced today the results of its 2014 Patient Preference Study which surveyed the mobile app behaviors and medication support preferences of 2,216 prescription-taking patients aged 18-65+. Â Conducted in the first quarter of 2014, key study findings include:
Most patients taking prescription medicine (72%) also use mobile apps (Android smartphone, iPhone, Android tablet, iPad, or Kindle Fire),
Mobile app adoption rates are high across all medication-taking adult age groups: 93% (age 18-24), 90% (age 25-34), 88% (age 35-44), 80% (age 45-54), 66% (age 55-64), and 50% (age 65+),
App-using patients prefer the privacy-protected single app Mobile Health Library (MHL) system (by a factor of 11 to 1) over email programs often offered by medication manufacturers. This high preference for a privacy-protected single app, customized to a user’s needs for medication education and support services, was observed across all adult age groups.
“This is a high rate of mobile app use among prescription-taking patients of all ages, including those 65+†remarked Michael A. Weber, MD, Professor of Medicine at the SUNY Downstate College of Medicine in Brooklyn, and Editor-In Chief of the Journal of Clinical Hypertension. “Apps represent an attractive communications medium to better support patient understanding, medication adherence, and medication safe-use,†added Weber.
Approximately half of America’s 187 million prescription-takers are non-adherent, meaning they do not take their medications as prescribed.
“I’m not surprised that most patients would prefer a single privacy-protected app that supports medication dosing reminders, ongoing education, and co-pay and affordability needs†said Amy C. Sidorski, MS, CRNP, BSN, RN of Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins University, and member of the ONS:Edge Oncology Nurse Experts Panel. “Especially one they receive from their physician or nurse,†added Sidorski.