• David S Wald, Shahena Butt, and Jonathan P Bestwick.
• Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom. Electronic address: d.s.wald@qmul.ac.uk.
• Am. J. Med. 2015 Oct 1; 128 (10): 1139.e1-5.

BackgroundMobile telephone text messaging is a simple potential solution to the failure to take medications as directed. There is uncertainty over the effectiveness of 1-way text messaging (sending text message reminders only) compared with 2-way text messaging (sending reminders and receiving replies confirming whether medication has been taken) as a means of improving medication adherence.MethodsA meta-analysis of 8 randomized trials (1994 patients) that tested the effectiveness of text messaging on medication adherence was performed. The trials were divided into 2 groups: trials using 1-way text messaging versus no text messaging and trials using 2-way text messaging versus no text messaging. The summary estimates of the effect of the 2 methods of text messaging (1-way or 2-way) were compared.ResultsThe summary relative risk estimate was 1.04 (95% confidence interval, 0.97-1.11) for 1-way text messaging and 1.23 (95% confidence interval, 1.13-1.35) for 2-way text messaging. The difference in effect between the 2 methods was statistically significant (P = .007).ConclusionsTwo-way text messaging is associated with substantially improved medication adherence compared with 1-way text messaging. This has important implications in the provision of mobile-based messaging in the management of patients taking medication for the prevention of chronic disease.Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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