Improving Drug Adherence Among Adolescents in Uganda Using SMS Reminders (RATA)

April 12, 2017 updated by: Sebastian Linnemayr, RAND
In this project the investigators develop and test a short message service (SMS) intervention based on the Information Motivation and Behavior skills (IMB) model. Reminding Adolescents To Adhere (RATA) prompts youths at two clinics in Uganda to take their medications and offers social support via weekly text messages. The investigators propose to adapt their previous successful SMS-intervention to the specific needs of youths and to evaluate the relative effectiveness of one-way versus two-way text messages (where two-way messages allow youths to respond to messages and we hypothesize that this may increase perceived social support that may be important for youth populations). We will also test the effectiveness of SMS messages over the longer-term (2 years), for which currently no information is available.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The primary goal of the proposed study is to develop and test SMS-based text messages for improving medication adherence among HIV-positive youths in a resource-limited setting. The study will be conducted in three phases: Phase 1 will consist of qualitative interviews with patients, clinic providers and directors, and community leaders and will elicit information on barriers to treatment and adherence patterns and cognitive obstacles to adherence that may be addressed by RATA. A second focus of this phase will be to investigate the familiarity with and attitude towards SMS messages among adolescents, and their attitudes towards different aspects of these messages. Parameters of the messages that will be probed include their frequency, content, and form using Figure 1 as a guiding principle for this exploratory phase. Phase 2 will use the findings from Phase 1 to develop and implement RATA in a randomized controlled trial (RCT). A sample of 330 clients aged 15-24 who are in HIV care and show signs of problems with adherence will be recruited and randomized into one of three equal-sized intervention arms: a control group that will receive usual care, or one of two treatment groups in which participants will receive usual care and additionally will receive either two-way SMS messages or one-way SMS messages. All RATA participants will be followed for two years. Assessments will be conducted at baseline and every 6 months over the course of 24 months. Medication event monitoring system (MEMS)-caps measured medication adherence will be the primary outcome measure, while viral load (for a subset of clients) CD4 count, self-reported adherence and pharmacy refill data as well as retention in care constitute secondary outcomes. Phase 3 will be used to analyze the collected data, conduct qualitative interviews with providers, clinic administrators, and study participants to learn about implementation difficulties and areas of improvement, and to share preliminary results and project implementation insights with these key players. This stage allows evaluating the feasibility and sustainability of the intervention for potential scale-up, for which we will also conduct a relative cost-effectiveness analysis of two- versus one-way messages. RATA will be extended to the control group in Year 5 if findings from phase 2 suggest its success at improving outcomes.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

330

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Uganda
      • Kampala, Uganda
        • Infectious Diseases Institute
      • Kampala, Uganda
        • Mildmay Uganda
  • United States
    • California
      • Santa Monica, California, United States, 90407
        • RAND

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

15 years to 24 years (Child, Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • age 15-24
  • have been in HIV care at the clinic for at least three months
  • are currently taking HIV-related medication (ART or co-trimoxazole)
  • have demonstrated adherence problems (defined as having missed at least one medication dose per week on average)
  • either own a phone or have regular access to one
  • intend to stay at the clinic for the study period
  • are not in boarding school (where phones are forbidden)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • does not speak or understand either English or Luganda

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Factorial Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control group
This study arm will receive care as usual.
Experimental: Two-way SMS intervention group
Two-way messages allow the recipient of the SMS message (the patient) to respond to the messages ("We hope you are feeling well today. Reply 1 if well, 2 if unwell") to request a follow-up call from the clinic.
Behavioral: Two-way SMS intervention
Clients will receive a weekly two-way SMS, meaning that the clients in this group will receive the same message as in the one-way SMS study arm, but in addition will be asked how they feel. Clients are required to either press 1 or respond "well" or press 2 or write 'Unwell" in response in the language of their choice within 48 hours. A missing response after 48 hours triggers a second SMS to remind the client to respond. If after 24 more hours the participant still does not respond or if at any point s/he responds "unwell" then the study coordinator will follow up with a call within 24 hours.
Experimental: One-way SMS intervention group
Clients will receive a weekly one-way SMS with the message "We hope you are feeling well today." There will be no prompt for response.
Behavioral: One-way SMS intervention group
Clients will receive a weekly one-way SMS message. There will be no prompt for any response.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Medication adherence rates using electronically monitored adherence (MEMS cap) data
Time Frame: 6 months after enrollment
Medication Event Monitoring System (MEMS)-cap data will be collected continuously over the course of the 24-month study period allowing us to investigate daily adherence and its timing. MEMS caps data indicating the date and time when the participant opened their pill bottle (either one of the ART medications or prophylaxis if not on ART yet) will be used to calculate the primary outcome variable of adherence (# of actual bottle openings / # of prescribed bottle openings).
6 months after enrollment
Medication adherence rates using electronically monitored adherence (MEMS cap) data
Time Frame: 12 months after enrollment
Medication Event Monitoring System (MEMS)-cap data will be collected continuously over the course of the 24-month study period allowing us to investigate daily adherence and its timing. MEMS caps data indicating the date and time when the participant opened their pill bottle (either one of the ART medications or prophylaxis if not on ART yet) will be used to calculate the primary outcome variable of adherence (# of actual bottle openings / # of prescribed bottle openings).
12 months after enrollment
Medication adherence rates using electronically monitored adherence (MEMS cap) data
Time Frame: 24 months after enrollment
Medication Event Monitoring System (MEMS)-cap data will be collected continuously over the course of the 24-month study period allowing us to investigate daily adherence and its timing. MEMS caps data indicating the date and time when the participant opened their pill bottle (either one of the ART medications or prophylaxis if not on ART yet) will be used to calculate the primary outcome variable of adherence (# of actual bottle openings / # of prescribed bottle openings).
24 months after enrollment

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Fraction of clients displaying adherence of 90% or more
Time Frame: At 6, 12, 18 and 24 months
MEMS caps data indicating the date and time when the participant opened their pill bottle (either one of the ART medications or prophylaxis if not on ART yet) will be used to calculate the secondary outcome measures of fraction of clients displaying adherence of 90% or more.
At 6, 12, 18 and 24 months
Indicator for treatment interruptions of more than 48 hours
Time Frame: At 6, 12, 18 and 24 months
MEMS caps data indicating the date and time when the participant opened their pill bottle (either one of the ART medications or prophylaxis if not on ART yet) will be used to calculate the secondary outcome measures of an indicator for treatment interruptions of more than 48 hours.
At 6, 12, 18 and 24 months
Viral load assays
Time Frame: At month 12
A randomized subset of 30 clients from each intervention arm (90 total) will measure viral load assays at month 12.
At month 12
Self-reported adherence
Time Frame: At baseline, 6, 12, 18 and 24 months
We will ask about number of missed doses over the past 7 days. Adherence is calculated as a proportion of prescribed doses taken.
At baseline, 6, 12, 18 and 24 months
Pharmacy Refill Adherence
Time Frame: Months 6, 12, 18 and 24
All patients on ART receive their medications in 30-day supplies from the Infectious Disease Institute (IDI) and Mildmay clinic pharmacies. For clients on co-trimoxazole, the drugs are typically dispensed in units of 90 count. We will adjust the measure according to the refill period specific to each client. A composite continuous multiple interval measure of medication availability or refill rate will be calculated (# of pills dispensed/ # pills prescribed per day)/ days between refills.
Months 6, 12, 18 and 24
Clinic Attendance
Time Frame: Continuous over 24 months
Attendance at regularly scheduled clinic visits as part of usual care will be tracked for all participants from the electronic client database and will be available in real-time to the study coordinator.
Continuous over 24 months
Cluster of differentiation 4 (CD4) count
Time Frame: Occasionally over 24 months
CD4 counts will be chart abstracted from the clinic data; they are typically taken about every six months
Occasionally over 24 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

RAND

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

February 1, 2013

Primary Completion (Actual)

January 31, 2016

Study Completion (Actual)

March 31, 2017

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 15, 2014

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 29, 2014

First Posted (Estimate)

May 1, 2014

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 14, 2017

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 12, 2017

Last Verified

April 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 1R01HD074925-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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