Inhaler that beeps boosts inhaler use: study

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with asthma are more likely to use their inhalers as prescribed if the inhalers are fitted with audiovisual alarms that beep and change colors as reminders, investigators in New Zealand report.

Poor adherence to medication regimens is common, often because patients simply forget to take their medication, according to Dr. Richard Beasley, from the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, and his associates in Wellington. People with asthma tend to use their inhalers only about half the time they're supposed to.

To address the problem, Nexus6 Ltd, based in Auckland, New Zealand, developed a special casing that holds the inhaler canister, complete with various electronic components.

For this study, all subjects used the Smartinhaler containing a covert electronic monitor to document when the inhaler was used.

For those in a "reminder" group, the Smartinhaler was fitted with an audiovisual reminder that beeps for up to 60 minutes, stopping when the patient uses the inhaler. The device also has a colored light, which changed from green to red after administration of the medication.

Forty-four people in the reminder group and 46 in the control group completed the 24-week study. The subjects, who were between 12 and 65 years old, were instructed to take one puff of the inhaler twice daily.

During the last 12 weeks of the trial, the average percentage of medication used was significantly higher in the reminder group than in the control group -- 88 percent versus 66 percent. The proportion of subjects taking more than 90 percent of their medication was much higher in the reminder group as well -- 64 percent versus 20 percent in the control group.

"Perhaps more importantly," Beasley and his colleagues write, around one in four subjects had less than 50 percent adherence in the control group, compared with around one in 20 in the reminder group.

They propose that similar strategies could be devised for use with non-inhaled forms of medication in chronic diseases or patient groups, especially those "in which adherence may be poor or outcomes may be strongly associated with adherence."

SOURCE: Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, April 2007.