Acne Smart Club: An Educational Program for Patients with Acne

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate adherence to therapy in acne patients using mobile phones and Short Message Service (SMS) to communicate. Methods: 160 patients were randomly assigned to two groups: the SMS group received 2 text messages twice a day for a period of 12 weeks; the control group did not receive any messages. Before and after 12 weeks, the following evaluations were performed in all patients: digital photographs, the Global Acne Grading System, the Dermatology Life Quality Index, the Cardiff Acne Disability Index, the doctor-patient relationship evaluated through the Patient-Doctor Depth-of-Relationship Scale, and the adherence to treatment evaluated by asking patients how many days a week they had followed the therapy. For statistical analysis we used Student's t test. Results: The SMS group had a better improvement of all parameters compared to the control group. Conclusion: Adherence and compliance are higher for patients who are included in a strategy of control.

Text Messaging and Mobile Phone Apps as Interventions to Improve Adherence in Adolescents With Chronic Health Conditions: A Systematic Review

“…Although our search included studies published since 1995, no eligible studies were identified before 2005, with most studies (12/15, 80%) published since 2010 (Table 1) [34-39,41-44,46,48]. Most studies were performed in the United States (in whole or in part; 11/15, 73%) [34,36-38,41,42,44-48].…”

“…Most studies were performed in the United States (in whole or in part; 11/15, 73%) [34,36-38,41,42,44-48]. Studies targeted eight different CHCs, including those of adolescents with acne (n=2) [34,39], asthma (n=1) [47], depression (n=1) [42], diabetes mellitus (n=4) [35,40,43,46], human immunodeficiency virus (n=2) [37,41], liver transplant (n=2) [44,45], sickle cell disease (n=2) [36,38], and systematic lupus erythematosus (n=1) [48]. Most studies were small in size (ie, ˂50 participants; 11/15, 73%) [34-37,42-48], and just over half (8/15, 53%) included samples of young adults (with a mean or median age ≥18 and ≤24 years old) [34,37,39,41-43,47,48].…”

“…Studies targeted eight different CHCs, including those of adolescents with acne (n=2) [34,39], asthma (n=1) [47], depression (n=1) [42], diabetes mellitus (n=4) [35,40,43,46], human immunodeficiency virus (n=2) [37,41], liver transplant (n=2) [44,45], sickle cell disease (n=2) [36,38], and systematic lupus erythematosus (n=1) [48]. Most studies were small in size (ie, ˂50 participants; 11/15, 73%) [34-37,42-48], and just over half (8/15, 53%) included samples of young adults (with a mean or median age ≥18 and ≤24 years old) [34,37,39,41-43,47,48]. In terms of study design, more than half were RCTs (8/15, 53%) [34,39-43,47,48], and the remainder were primarily single-arm nonrandomized trials (6/15, 40%) [35-37,44-46] or retrospective chart reviews (1/15, 7%) [38].…”

“…Most studies were small in size (ie, ˂50 participants; 11/15, 73%) [34-37,42-48], and just over half (8/15, 53%) included samples of young adults (with a mean or median age ≥18 and ≤24 years old) [34,37,39,41-43,47,48]. In terms of study design, more than half were RCTs (8/15, 53%) [34,39-43,47,48], and the remainder were primarily single-arm nonrandomized trials (6/15, 40%) [35-37,44-46] or retrospective chart reviews (1/15, 7%) [38]. The duration of the studies varied: 2-4 weeks (2/15, 13%) [42,43], 12-16 weeks (5/15, 33%) [34,35,39,46,47], 24 weeks (3/15, 20%) [36,37,41], and 12 months or more (5/15, 33%) [38,40,44,45,48].…”

“…In terms of study design, more than half were RCTs (8/15, 53%) [34,39-43,47,48], and the remainder were primarily single-arm nonrandomized trials (6/15, 40%) [35-37,44-46] or retrospective chart reviews (1/15, 7%) [38]. The duration of the studies varied: 2-4 weeks (2/15, 13%) [42,43], 12-16 weeks (5/15, 33%) [34,35,39,46,47], 24 weeks (3/15, 20%) [36,37,41], and 12 months or more (5/15, 33%) [38,40,44,45,48]. Only one study evaluated the durability of intervention effects in a crossover design with 6-month follow-up in one of the study arms after the intervention was discontinued [41].…”