Why this research is needed?
Hypertension is a major risk factor for disability and premature death, and medication adherence can significantly lower these risks. However, large proportions of people do not take their medication as prescribed. For example, a recent study looked at nearly two million participants with hypertension and found that the 41% of them do not take their medications as prescribed.
Forgetting to take medications or altering the way these are prescribed reduces the effectiveness of treatment and increases the cost to the NHS from hospital admissions, additional consultations, referrals, investigations and medicine wastage.
However, currently there are no effective ways to support these people and improve the way they take their medications. By taking part in this research you will help us to obtain more information on how to support these people to take their medications as prescribed.
How this intervention is different than easily setting up alarms on my phone?
This service aims to provide you with tips on how to best take medication as prescribed; it provides advice based on evidence; it is interactive (e.g. you can ask and respond to questions, change the settings and content of the messages) and it can be easily personalised to your lifestyle (e.g. each person receives different reminders).
How will this research affect the care I receive from my practice?
This study will not affect the care you receive from your GP practice. It does not involve changing the medications you take. For any changes to your current treatment or health condition you will need to talk to your health care provide at your GP practice.
Will my taking part in this study and the information I provide be kept confidential?
Yes. All information that is collected about you during the course of this study will be kept strictly confidential, stored securely and processed in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018 and Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018, as well as with the University of Cambridge confidentiality policy. Access to the information will be restricted to the research team for the purposes of this research. Your GP practice will be informed that you are taking part in the study but will only have access to anonymised results.
If I decide to take part I need to use my mobile phone, how will my personal information be protected against hacking?
It is very unlikely that your personal information will be hacked. The text message intervention will operate using a secure service that complies with the GDPR 2018 and DPA 2018. The app has been developed in collaboration with the computer lab at the University of Cambridge, which complies with the confidentiality policies. All information will be transferred by secured internet files. Both the text message and the app will not be linked to any other apps or services on your phone.
If I use the app, what information is collected and how this is kept confidential?
The app will collect information about the Wi-Fi, accelerometer and location (for the purposes of analysis only), which will be sent to the Cambridge University servers using secured internet files and will be deleted from your device after the end of study.
All information collected by the app will be stored in the app only. After transfer, the data will be deleted from the app. This information will be collected to explore whether it is feasible to provide personalised advice to patients based on their routines (e.g. location they are in, activities they do around the time they take their tablets)
Is there any cost involved?
This intervention is free. However, charges might apply for responding to text messages and mobile internet data will be used to download the app to your phone.