EmPhAsIS: Empowering Pharmacists in Asthma Management Through Interactive SMS

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Asthma
• Interventions: Other: Usual care; Other: Interactive SMS

• Registration Number: NCT02170883
• Lead Sponsor: University of British Columbia

Brief Summary

Between 8% and 12% of Canadians suffer from asthma. Although there are effective and inexpensive treatments, adherence to asthma treatment is amongst the lowest for all chronic diseases.The purpose of this study is to determine whether enhancing the role of community pharmacists in asthma management using interactive short messaging service (SMS) with asthma patients is a cost-effective model that will improve adherence to inhaled corticosteroid medications compared to usual care.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2014-06-19
• Study First Submitted QC: 2014-06-19
• Study First Posted: 2014-06-23
• Study Start: 2015-05
• Primary Completion: 2019-03
• Study Completion: 2019-03
• Status Verified: 2020-12
• Last Update Submitted: 2020-12-08
• Last Update Posted: 2020-12-10

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 271

Inclusion Criteria

• individuals who fill a (incident or prevalent) prescription for inhaled corticosteroids (either monotherapy or in combination inhaler with long-acting beta-agonists) who have been diagnosed by a doctor as having asthma
• possessing a cell-phone with ability to send/receive text messages
• residing in British Columbia (BC), Canada and planning to reside in BC for the next 12 months
• registered with the medical services plan (MSP, the provincial insure of medically-required services) in the past 12 months, and planning to remain registered for the next 12 months
• designated pharmacy being the main drugstore for patient
• not participating in another interventional study
• consent to participate in the study.

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Exclusion Criteria

• Unable to communicate in English
• Under 14 years of age

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Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Usual care	Usual care	Pharmacist conducted patient education, counseling and action-plan
Interactive SMS	Interactive SMS	Intervention with interactive SMS (text messaging) by which patients are asked to disclose their level of agreement with the following statement "I follow my asthma medication plan" and pharmacist follow-up

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Adherence to inhaled corticosteroid medication	12 months	Adherence assessed by medication possession ratio

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Asthma control	12 months	Asthma control assessed by the Asthma Control Test
Quality of life measured by the Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire	12 months	Quality of life measured by the Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire
Health care resource utilization	12 months	Asthma-related hospital admissions and emergency department visits
Use of reliever medication for acute asthma attacks	12 months	Use of reliever medication for acute asthma attacks

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

UBC; 🇨🇦 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada