If your symptoms are not letting up or if your poor health has already become worse, it's possible that you have not taken your medications properly. But based on a study, all you need is a text messaging service to minimize further health risks.
The National Health Service conducted a study that shows how regular text messages that serve as medication reminders can help improve a person's health and reduce their risks of being sick further.
The study, the findings of which are already available in PLOS ONE, included 300 men and women who are currently taking drugs to help control their blood pressure. People who are exhibiting chronic high blood pressure are at risk of developing cardiovascular diseases in the future.
The participants then received text reminders at different frequencies or intervals. Some didn't receive any while others got them daily for the next two weeks. Then the messages arrived every other day and then weekly for about half a year.
Once they received a message, the participants then needed to send a reply depending on what they did with the reminder: if they took their medications, if they forgot to take any but the text message reminded them, and if they didn't take any despite the notification.
These responses were automatically received by the system, which would then alert the researchers of people who didn't take their drugs. Someone then called the participants to provide them heath advice in the hopes the patients would be more encouraged to stay on track with their health program.
After the study, the researchers discovered that a text reminder can truly help patients stay on course; only 14 out of 150 of them skipped their medications even after the health advice. Meanwhile, more than 20% of those who didn't receive any text message stopped taking medications or consumed no more than 80% of the recommended drugs. Those who stopped are usually patients who didn't believe they needed the medications or afraid of the side effects.