Minimal intervention to improve medication adherence
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Minimal intervention to improve medication adherence among people with more than one long term condition (MINIMA): Feasibility trial of a brief psychological intervention
IRAS ID
148325
Contact name
Chris Armitage
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Research summary
We are seeking ethical approval to conduct a pilot feasibility study of a brief psychological intervention designed to improve adherence to medication in people with more than one long-term condition (LTC).
Non-adherence to medication among people with LTCs is an extensive problem with significant consequences for the individual and society. It is a particular problem for patients with multiple long-term conditions who often have complex medication regimes.
There are existing effective interventions to improve medication adherence but they are often labour-intensive and costly. There is a need to complement these with simple, efficient interventions that have sufficient ’reach’ into the population to support the large number of patients with long-term conditions.
Distributing health education is one strategy that could be efficient and high reach. However, health education alone is generally not found to be successful in changing health behaviours. One reason for this is that patient education often contains risk information that can be perceived as threatening by patients whose subsequent defensive reactions (e.g. being disparaging about the message) then undermine the ability of the message to change behaviour. However, if a health message is supplemented with a self-affirmation intervention, a procedure that bolsters an individual’s sense of self-worth, these defensive reactions can be reduced. An example of self-affirmation is asking people, on a questionnaire, to pick several personal qualities that are important to them (e.g. generosity, kindness) and write several lines about each.
We will invite up to eight practices in the Gtr. Manchester area to take part in this work. We will identify participants using disease registers, aiming to recruit approximately 180 patients. Participants will be randomized to intervention (health message plus self-affirmation) and control (health message only) groups and will be followed up at one month. To assess feasibility we will look at factors such as engagement and retention.
REC name
North West - Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/NW/0282
Date of REC Opinion
16 May 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion