Daily Text Message Reminders Improve Adherence to Allopurinol

Daily text message reminders for patients with gout who were prescribed allopurinol significantly improved adherence and outcomes, according to research presented at the 2018 Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR 2018).

“Our results clearly show that mobile phone text reminders could be an important tool to enhance allopurinol adherence and help in controlling serum urate levels in gout patients,” Pongthorn Narongroeknawin, MD, head of the rheumatic disease unit at the Phramongkutklao Hospital in Thailand, said in a press release.

In order to understand how text messages could impact adherence and serum uric acid levels in patients with gout, the researcher conducted a randomized trial with 82 patients. The 42 patients assigned to the intervention group received a short daily text reminder to take allopurinol, while 40 patients in the control group received a weekly short information message. 

After 90 days, the researchers found that 88.1% of patients in the text-messaging group achieved adherence while none of the patients in the control group achieved similar results. Further, the researchers found that serum uric acid were significantly decreased in both groups—with a significantly greater reduction in the intervention group.

“Patients who received daily short message reminder had significantly improved adherence and reduction in serum uric acid compared with the control individuals,” Dr Narongroeknawin and colleagues concluded. “Mobile phones text reminders may be an important tool to enhance allopurinol adherence and help in controlling serum uric acid level in gout patients.”