An interventional study of Smartphone medication intake reminder + educational and motivational text messaging in Infection, Bacterial, sponsored by University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland. Completed at 2 sites in Switzerland. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-01-09.
Sponsored by University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland · Not applicable, Interventional, and Health services research
Outpatients with short-term antibiotic treatment should start and finish the treatment according to medical advise that is, the intake pattern (named adherence) should be regular. The research question is: Can a smartphone-based program including intake reminder and two text messages improve adherence to a short-term antibiotic treatment in ambulatory setting?
Participants will be asked to record every antibiotic intake in an app on their smartphone over the prescribed therapy duration and to note their symptoms once daily. One group will obtain reminder + text messages, and the control group will have no reminder + no text messages.
This study is planned as a monocentric, cluster-randomized, double-blind, two-arm study in a primary care setting with outpatients newly prescribed co-amoxicillin for a short-term therapy. Participating community pharmacies will recruit patients entering with a prescription for co-amoxicillin and offer the service. Randomisation will take place on the pharmacy level via computer generated list of numbers (1: with intervention; 2: with no intervention). Pharmacists and participants will not know that the intervention is not the app itself, but rather the combination of a reminder and text messages (= double-blind). The intervention will consist of the use of a smartphone reminder (e.g. alarm clock or a reminder app; a list with suitable examples will be given and patients will choose one of them) and two personalized motivational and educational text messages that will be sent by the pharmacy during the treatment duration. The control group will have no reminder and no text messages. All participants will use a simplified version of the freely available medication management app TOM to record their medication intake (= adherence measurement method). Participants in both groups will obtain a consultation driven by their adherence report with the study team at the end of the treatment to discuss their individual adherence data, their symptom course and well-being. After that, patients will receive a link to an online survey where they will evaluate their satisfaction with the service and the smartphone application. Participating pharmacists will be interviewed by the study team regarding their experience and satisfaction after the end of the study.
658 studies on the registry are indexed under Bacterial Infections; 100 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 34 is below the median of 84 across 405 interventional studies indexed under Bacterial Infections.
Browse Bacterial Infections studies →University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland is the lead sponsor of 968 studies on the registry; 191 are open to participants now.
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Exclusion Criteria:
Reminder + text messaging
Other: Smartphone medication intake reminder + educational and motivational text messaging
No reminder + no text messaging
The intervention includes the use of a smartphone-based medication intake reminder, along with two educational and motivational text messages during the therapy period.
Adherence rates (in percent)
Patients confirm every medication intakes in the app. The app will deliver time stamps. Based on these, taking, dosing and timing adherence will be calculated in percent.
Time frame: Up to 14 days (maximum therapy duration)
Persistence rate (in percent)
Patients confirm every medication intakes in the app. The app will deliver time stamps. Based on these, persistence rate to the therapy will be calculated: \[days with at least one dose / prescribed treatment days\] × 100
Time frame: Up to 14 days (maximum therapy duration)
Time to symptom control
Patients will note in a diary their symptoms once daily. Time to symptom control will be calculated as number of days up to freedom of symptoms.
Time frame: Up to 14 days (maximum therapy duration)
Pharmacists' satisfaction with the service including the app
Satisfaction will be assessed through semi-structured interviews and analyzed inductively.
Time frame: 2 weeks after study completion
Patients' satisfaction with the service including the app
Satisfaction will be assessed quantitatively in an online-survey on a 5-point Likert-scale. High values will indicate a better outcome.
Time frame: 7 days after therapy completion
This study is completed, as verified in Jan 2025. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland