Personal digital assistants used to document compliance of bacterial vaginosis treatment.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to estimate patient compliance with oral and vaginal metronidazole treatment of bacterial vaginosis using personal digital assistants (PDAs) and paper diaries.


OBJECTIVE
The goal of this study was to assess a novel compliance documentation approach.


METHODS
After each dose of intravaginal or oral metronidazole, 71 subjects recorded the time on a paper diary and answered questions on a PDA. All PDA entries were unknowingly time-date-stamped. Subjects returned for 2- and 6-week posttreatment examinations. Compliance was calculated using a repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance (ANOVA).


RESULTS
Mean patient compliance rates within the oral metronidazole group were greater with the paper diary compared with the PDA (68.3% and 50.0%, respectively, P = 0.001). The observed rate of compliance agreement for PDA versus paper diary was 69.0% (kappa = 0.4). The majority of noncompliant subjects reported they were compliant with the PDA and paper diary.


CONCLUSIONS
PDAs could more accurately document true compliance rates and could be reasonable instruments to assess compliance in intravaginal antimicrobial drug or contraceptive trials.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia 30912, USA.
Jennifer B
JB
Bartley
Daron G
DG
Ferris
Lynn M
LM
Allmond
Eileen D
ED
Dickman
James K
JK
Dias
Jerry
J
Lambert
D000282:Administration, Intravaginal; D000284:Administration, Oral; D000328:Adult; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D034201:Computers, Handheld; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005845:Georgia; D006801:Humans; D008499:Medical Records; D008795:Metronidazole / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D010349:Patient Compliance / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016585:Vaginosis, Bacterial / Q000188:drug therapy*
D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D008795:Metronidazole