Improving Medicine Adherence among Elderly Hypertensive Patients by Using a One-dose Package Medication Support System

Poor medication adherence contribues to insufficient blood pressure management among hypertensive patients. This is especially the case for elderly people who, despite having control over their medicine intake, fail to take their medicine. As a solution to the problem of medication adherence, a one-dose package medication support system was devised (patent pending). This system alerts users about the time for medication intake by a chime. Further, if a patient forgets to take his or her medicine over a preset period, a voice message is automatically transmitted to his or her medication supporter via telephone. The purpose of this study was to clarify how this system improves medication adherence among elderly hypertensive patients living at home. The participants were four elderly patients and eight medication supporters (two per elderly person). During the experimental period, June to September 2013, medication adherence was investigated using the system and home blood pressure measurement. Following the experimental period, the participants and medication supporters were interviewed. Medication adherence during the monitoring period was 100%. For one participant, the role of medication management shifted from the family to the patient. The results show that this system could eliminate instances of forgetting to take medicine or inappropriate intake of medicine. They also show that the one-dose package medication support system can give an accurate understanding of a patient's medication adherence.