Personal digital assistants (PDAs) can be used persuasively to change attitudes regarding medication taking, thereby facilitating adherence for older adults. A pillbox that integrates onto the body of the PDA was created as a place to store mid-day pills. Results from a lab and field experiment on older adults’ perceptions and use of PDAs for medication minding are reported. In both the lab and...

INTRODUCTION Accurate measurement of adherence is necessary to ensure that therapeutic outcomes can be attributed to the recommended treatment. Phone-based unannounced pill counts were shown to be feasible and reliable measures of adherence in developed settings; and have been further used as part of medication adherence interventions. However, it is not clear whether this method can be impleme...

PURPOSE A lower daily pill burden may improve adherence to antiretroviral treatment (ART) and clinical outcomes in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This study assessed differences in adherence using the number of pills taken per day, and evaluated how adherence correlated with hospitalization. METHODOLOGY Commercially insured patients in the LifeLink database with an HIV diag...

AIM To estimate the effectiveness of triple combination therapy in antiretroviral-naive adults. METHODS A systematic overview of results from clinical trials involving triple combination therapy with dual nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTI) and: a protease inhibitor (PI triple); a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI triple); or a third NRTI (triple NUC). Data ...

Adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) is paramount for virological suppression and positive treatment outcomes. ART has been rapidly scaled up in Papua New Guinea (PNG) in recent years, however clinical monitoring of HIV+ individuals on ART is limited. A cross-sectional study was conducted at two major sexual health clinics in high HIV prevalence provinces in the Highlands Region of PNG to ...

OBJECTIVES To determine short- and long-term efficacy of modified directly observed therapy (m-DOT) on antiretroviral adherence. DESIGN Randomized controlled trial. SETTING AND ANALYTIC APPROACH: From September 2003 to November 2004, 234 HIV-infected adults were assigned m-DOT (24 weeks of twice weekly health center visits for nurse-observed pill ingestion, adherence support, and medication c...

Despite the efficacy of corticosteroid therapy, patients hospitalized for asthma exacerbations are at high risk for re-exacerbation and death after discharge. The objective of this prospective cohort study was to evaluate adherence to inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) and oral corticosteroids (OCS) after discharge in adults hospitalized for asthma exacerbations. ICS and OCS were equipped with elect...

OBJECTIVE To explore the therapeutic mechanism of endometriosis by the treatment of Yiqi Huoxue Huayu Tongfu Principle (YQHXHYTFP, tonifying Qi and promoting blood circulation to remove stasis and purgation therapy) with Neiyi 1+ pill. METHODS Forty-five cases with endometriosis were divided randomly into TCM group (30 cases, treated with Neiyi 1+ pill) and the control group (15 cases, treate...