The Effect of Education with an Automatic SMS Reminder System on Type 2 Diabetes Patients’ Medication Adherence

Background: Diabetes is one of the most common metabolic diseases leading to debilitating complications. One of the most important causes of complications in diabetic patients is non-adherence to the medication regimen due to forgetfulness and negligence. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the effect of education with an automatic SMS reminder system on type 2 diabetes patients’ medication adherence. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was performed on 120 patients with type 2 diabetes referring to the Diabetes Clinic in Zahedan in 2021. The participants were randomly assigned to the control and intervention groups. The participants in the intervention group were reminded to take their medications using the automatic SMS service. The data were collected using a demographic information questionnaire and the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS). The MMAS items were completed by the participants in both groups before the intervention and one month after the intervention. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS-26 software at a significance level of 0.05. Results: The results indicated that the mean scores of medication adherence in the two intervention and control groups before training with the automatic SMS reminder system were not significantly different (P = 0.052). However, after the intervention, the mean score of medication adherence for the patients in the intervention group was significantly higher than that of the patients in the control group (P = 0.001). Conclusions: Drug reminders using the automated SMS reminder system can improve medication adherence in diabetic patients.