title: User profiles of a smartphone application to support drug adherence--experiences from the iNephro project.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  One of the key problems in the drug therapy of patients with chronic conditions is drug adherence. In 2010 the initiative iNephro was launched (www.inephro.de). A software to support regular and correct drug intake was developed for a smartphone platform (iOS). The study investigated whether and how smartphone users deployed such an application.
  
  
  METHODS
  Together with cooperating partners the mobile application "Medikamentenplan" ("Medication Plan") was developed. Users are able to keep and alter a list of their regular medication. A memory function supports regular intake. The application can be downloaded free of charge from the App Store™ by Apple™. After individual consent of users from December 2010 to April 2012 2042338 actions were recorded and analysed from the downloaded applications. Demographic data were collected from 2279 users with a questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall the application was used by 11688 smartphone users. 29% (3406/11688) used it at least once a week for at least four weeks. 27% (3209/11688) used the application for at least 84 days. 68% (1554/2279) of users surveyed were male, the stated age of all users was between 6-87 years (mean 44). 74% of individuals (1697) declared to be suffering from cardiovascular disease, 13% (292) had a previous history of transplantation, 9% (205) were suffering from cancer, 7% (168) reported an impaired renal function and 7% (161) suffered from diabetes mellitus. 69% (1568) of users were on <6 different medications, 9% (201) on 6 - 10 and 1% (26) on more than 10.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A new smartphone application, which supports drug adherence, was used regularly by chronically ill users with a wide range of diseases over a longer period of time. The majority of users so far were middle-aged and male.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine I, Marienhospital Herne, University Hospital, Ruhr University Bochum, Herne, Germany ; Department of Nephrology, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kribben
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Meister
authors.forename: Clarissa Jonas
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Diamantidis
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Unger
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mitchell
mesh_terms: D040421:Cell Phone; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000188:drug therapy*; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055118:Medication Adherence; D063731:Mobile Applications / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014584:User-Computer Interface