The Effectiveness of Telephone Intervention for Improving Patient Adherence to Medication among Diabetic Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Trials

ABSTRACT Introduction Diabetes is one of the chronic diseases that requires adherence to prescribed medications. With the current pandemic, mobile technology plays a role in caring for patients remotely. Objective To determine the effectiveness of telephone intervention (phone call and text message) on medication adherence among diabetic patients. Methodology Randomized controlled trials were searched in Cochrane Library, PubMed, Herdin, BMC Health Services Research using combination of terms through boolean operators (“phone message” OR “phone call” AND (“medication adherence” AND “diabetes”) which compared telephone intervention vs usual care. mean, sample size and standard deviation of Medication Adherence in each study were extracted. Review Manager 5.4 software was used for statistical analysis. Results Three trials met the inclusion criteria and were included in this study. The telephone intervention did not result in statistically significant improvement in medication adherence among diabetics (pooled mean difference: 0.05 95%CI -.08 to 0.17) Conclusion: The intervention was no more effective than the usual care. However, mobile use has potential application for remote care during this pandemic.