Motivation is the Key - Research, by Jiasi
4/18/2019
After we have developed the whole flow of the mid-fi prototype, we found that we still haven’t really addressed the motivation gap. Stacie encouraged us to ask ourselves:
- Why we want to use the app we’ve developing given lots of current similar apps are out there already?
- How to encourage patients to even download the app? (the motivation to download the app)
- Once the patients download the app, how to encourage them to keep using the app(motivation to keep tracking their diet). Regarding this point, what’s the best way to phrase the notification that patients would feel motivated while also not feeling being annoyed. We want to avoid the case that when patients get too much notification, they probably get too used to it and just ignore it. (Maybe, in this case, the notification will be altered every once a while?)
With these thoughts, I did some research on how to keep patients motivated to take follow doctor’s instructions:
There are several ways to increase motivation to take medication as prescribed:
Think about why you are taking the medication in the first place. Will it help reduce pain so you can return to work? Prolong your life so you can spend time with your grandchildren? Find ways to remind yourself of why it is important and visualize the results of success! Put a picture of your family next to your medicine.
Track progress in a journal. Use a sticker chart and reward yourself (a movie, a special purchase) regularly and often.
Take your medication at a similar time each day. Perhaps you can combine taking the medication with other regular, daily activities that are already part of your routine (for example, brushing your teeth), so taking the medication becomes “automatic.”
Use a medication planner/pill box. Send yourself email and text reminders.
Enlist family and friends to help with these strategies.
Article Highlights
Approximately 50% of patients do not take medications as prescribed;
Medication adherence is not exclusively the responsibility of the patient
Increasing adherence may have a greater effect on health than improvements in specific medical therapy;
Medication-taking behavior is complex and involves patient, physician, and process components;
Identification of nonadherence is challenging and requires specific interviewing skills;
Solutions include encouraging a “blame-free” environment, opting for less frequent dosing, improving patient education, assessing health literacy, and paying attention to rational nonadherence;
Many helpful Web-based resources are available.
Adherence to long-term therapies
Poor adherence to treatment of chronic diseases is a worldwide problem of striking magnitude.
Patients’ knowledge and beliefs about their illness, motivation to manage it, confidence (self-efficacy) in their ability to engage in illness-management behaviors, and expectations regarding the outcome of treatment and the consequences of poor adherence, interact in ways not yet fully understood to influence adherence behavior.
Some of the patient-related factors reported to affect adherence are: forgetfulness; psychosocial stress; anxieties about possible adverse effects; low motivation; inadequate knowledge and skill in managing the disease symptoms and treatment; lack of self-perceived need for treatment; lack of perceived effect of treatment; negative beliefs regarding the efficacy of the treatment; misunderstanding and nonacceptance of the disease; disbelief in the diagnosis; lack of perception of the health risk related to the disease; misunderstanding of treatment instructions; lack of acceptance of monitoring; low treatment expectations; low attendance at follow-up, or at counselling, motivational, behavioural, or psychotherapy classes; hopelessness and negative feelings; frustration with health care providers; fear of dependence; anxiety over the complexity of the drug regimen, and feeling stigmatized by the disease.
