Telephone E-Health Communication for Improving Glaucoma Treatment Compliance

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Despite recent advancements in the prevention and treatment of glaucoma, many patients remain at risk for glaucoma-induced impairment because they fail to comply with prescribed medications and other components of their treatment regimen. Recent research from the field of health communication has shown great potential for improving health behaviors, such as treatment compliance, by applying information technology to well-established behavioral change strategies. By applying the state-of-the-art in e-health communication to glaucoma treatment compliance, we propose to develop, implement, and evaluate an innovative intervention among 250 patients recruited from two eye clinics in metro-Atlanta. Our "ACTIVE" Intervention will be Automated, Computerized, Tailored, Interactive, Voice-recognizing, and Empowering, to comprehensively and simultaneously use multiple e-health communication strategies in one telephone based intervention. Intervention messages will be individually-tailored to participants' compliance knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors; psychosocial predictors of compliance; health literacy; race and culture; and call schedule and frequency preferences. Each intervention call also will utilize interactive voice recognition technology to facilitate interest, participation, and interaction with call recipients. We will evaluate our 12-month intervention in a randomized controlled trial with computer-assisted telephone interviews administered to all participants every six months for 18 months. Outcome measures of treatment compliance include administrative data on prescription drug renewals and appointment compliance; medical record data on diagnosis, treatment, and condition; and self-report data on compliance knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Findings from this study can inform the development and widespread dissemination of innovative communication efforts to improve eye health. The proposed research can have a significant impact on public health by demonstrating a generalizable and affordable health promotion and disease prevention strategy to increase treatment compliance among patients at risk for disease-related impairment. The findings from this study can inform future public health interventions for improving treatment compliance in vision health and other chronic conditions that require compliance with medication and other treatments.