PIH47 - Patient Survey Data Results: Preferences for Reminders in Pro Studies

Abstract

To identify effective reminder strategies, survey data focused on patient preferences for reminders in Patient Reported Outcomes (PRO) studies was investigated. This presentation will share these results to provide recommendations for patient reminder strategies to optimize patient compliance and data quality. A survey was completed in 2013, involving patients who participated in at least one clinical study in the past two years that required patient diaries. The survey sought to establish patient preferences (modality/timing) for receiving diary reminders based on their experiences, including an evaluation on their personal technology behaviors. Responses were provided by 405 patients. The patients stated their reasons for non-compliance of their patient diaries: 51.4% reported “non-compliance due to forgetting”; 41.1% reported “being too busy”; 27.6% reported “a lack of diary access”; and 2.7% reported “other reasons”. Patients also stated their modality preferences for reminders. The preferred choice was text messages (67.2%); followed by hand-held alerts (34.3%); phone calls (34.1%); calendar alerts (32.6%); and email (6.2%). Although the majority of patients indicated checking text messages and emails daily, significantly more patients checked text messages immediately when compared to email (52.9% vs. 15.1%) suggesting that text messages would be a more effective way to remind patients. The majority of patients wanted to be reminded of their diary assessments (97.3%), appointments (95.8%), and medication dosing (95.0%). As the top reason for non-compliance was “forgetting”, this suggests that reminders can be helpful in improving compliance. Results show that patients prefer to be reminded, also suggesting that reminders can improve compliance. Technology behaviors suggest that text messages could be an effective way to remind patients. Patient preferences for reminders should be given careful consideration – since incorporating optimal reminder strategies can likely improve the patient experience, compliance and data quality.