Development of an Interactive Tailored Information Application to Improve Patient Medication Adherence

Medication adherence is increasingly recognized as an important health care problem. Although various factors have been related to adherence, patients' understanding of their illness and the influence of treatment on it has been shown to affect treatment adherence. Individually tailoring information provided to patients has a greater im-pact on patient behavior than providing generic information. This paper details the development of an interactive software application that provides individually-tailored information to patients treated with cholinesterase inhibitor medications for memory disorders. The application allows clinician input of information on patient level of health literacy and allows patients to choose among multiple questions related to their illness and its treatment. Output then includes answers to questions in Spanish and English at low or high literacy levels. Pilot data show a high degree of acceptability to users and an association with high sustained levels of adherence.