Study rationale

Research shows that social support using existing friends or family has been associated with greater medication adherence. Thus, Medisafe conducted a retrospective study evaluating the impact of its Medfriend feature, which provides users with social support through the app. The Medfriend feature enables users to connect to and alert caregivers, family and friends about missed medication doses. Connecting patients to caregivers makes patients more accountable and encourages positive behavioral changes, which prevent serious health events that could arise from a missed dose of medication.

Group One – Adherence

We analyzed 1,617 non-adherent active users two weeks before and two weeks after they added a Medfriend. Non-adherent users were defined as having a successful dose recorded less than 80% of the time.

Results

• 71% of users improved medication adherence after adding a Medfriend
• 40% of non-adherent users became adherent after adding Medfriend
• 17% improvement of mean medication adherence rate for the group

Group Two – Retention

We compared 4,000 users who already had a Medfriend and 4,000 users without a Medfriend, all of whom must have registered a medication dose at least once.

Results

After 90 days on Medisafe, users with a Medfriend are 59% more likely to still be using Medisafe (i.e. taking a med)

The Medisafe study demonstrates the strong impact of social support on the complex problem of medication non-adherence. A study from 2012 shows that social support can be a cost-effective way to improve medication adherence and management of chronic diseases, which aligns with the overall goal of the Medfriend feature.