Patient Adherence to Acupuncture Treatment

Improving Treatment Adherence in Acupuncture Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trail

Adherence to treatment recommendation remains low among acupuncture patients. This study aims to examine whether implementing a post-initial visit follow-up strategy can improve adherence rate. Adult patients visiting the acupuncture clinic for a new treatment will be randomized to receive a telephone call or a text-message three days after their initial visit against a control group. We will enroll up to 160 participants between February and December 2017, to ensure we can reach 120 subjects in the analysis who completed the baseline survey. Participants recruitment will take place at the Emperor's College of Traditional Oriental Medicine Acupuncture Clinic. Assessments will be conducted via surveys at four times points, Day 0 (date of enrollment), Day 3, Day 10 and Day 30. Additional data will also be collected via chart review. Primary outcome will be assessing whether participants return for any follow-up visit within 30 days after the initial treatment. Secondary outcomes will examine if factors such as expectations, intention, satisfaction, and potential barriers would predict the primary outcome.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Adherence, Patient
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Telephone call; Behavioral: Text message

Detailed Description

This randomized controlled trial will deliver two interventions: (1) telephone call reminder and (2) text messaging reminder.

Participants who meet study eligibility criteria based on intake assessment will be recruited and complete baseline assessment immediately after they receive acupuncture treatment. There will be 40 participants in each of the two intervention groups and the no intervention control group.

Participants will be adults who visit the Emperor's College Acupuncture Clinic for a new treatment consultation on the date of the enrollment.

The telephone call and text messaging intervention is a one-time reminder system delivered to the participants based on the study random assignment, three days after the initial visit. A research assistant will be contacting the participants based on the assigned interventions.

There are three data collection points, 1) baseline (during initial visit), 2) 10 days after the initial visit, and 3) 30 days after the initial visit. Data will be collected via a tablet (baseline) and online survey (Day 10 and Day 30) through a secure online survey platform. Baseline assessment will occur prior to randomization, and post-intervention assessments will occur at 10 to 30 days after the initial visit.

Number of follow-up treatments for the same health concern will be collected for all enrolled participants from the participants' clinical record.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 121
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • California
    • Los Angeles, California, United States, 90033
      • University of Southern California

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Outside patients seeking acupuncture treatment at Emperor's College Clinic
• Age 18 and above
• English-speaking
• Starting a new treatment at the day of recruitment
• Own a mobile device
• Mobile device has text-messaging capability
• Visiting the Master's Clinic at Emperor's College

Exclusion Criteria:

• Emperor's College's students or staffs seeking acupuncture treatment
• Patients visiting the faculty observation theater, ear acupuncture clinic and private clinic
• Patients returning for a follow-up acupuncture visit at the day of recruitment

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Telephone call; Participants receive a telephone call reminder three days after their initial visit	Behavioral: Telephone call; Participants in the intervention group receive a one-time telephone call reminder to attend follow-up treatment at the acupuncture clinic
Experimental: Text message; Participants receive a text message reminder three days after their initial visit	Behavioral: Text message; Participants in the intervention group receive a one-time text messaging reminder to attend follow-up treatment at the acupuncture clinic
No Intervention: Control; Participants do not receive any intervention after their initial visit

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Attendance to follow-up treatment	Participants attending acupuncture follow-up treatments	Within 30 days after participants' initial visit

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Total number of follow-up treatments	The total number of follow-up treatments by participants	Within 30 days after participants' initial visit

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Southern California
• Investigators: Study Director: David Black, PhD, University of Southern California

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 20, 2017
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 24, 2017
• Study Completion (Actual): October 31, 2017

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 22, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 22, 2018
• First Posted (Actual): August 24, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): August 24, 2018
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 22, 2018
• Last Verified: August 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: HS-17-00008

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: No plan to share IPD

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No