Can Alarming Improve Compliance with Weekly Bisphosphonate in Patients with Osteoporosis?
BACKGROUND
Although bisphosphonate is effective for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis, poor medication compliance is a key-limiting factor. We determined whether alarm clock could improve compliance with weekly bisphosphonate in patients with osteoporosis, by comparing with age- and gender-matched control group.


METHODS
Fifty patients with osteoporosis were recruited and participated in alarm clock group. Patients were asked to take orally weekly risedronate for 1 year, and received alarm clock to inform the time of taking oral bisphosphonate weekly. Using the propensity score matching with age and gender, 50 patients were identified from patients with osteoporosis medication. We compared the compliance with bisphosphonate using medication possession ratio (MPR) between two groups.


RESULTS
Although there was no significant difference of baseline characteristics between both groups, the mean MPR (0.80±0.33) of alarm clock group was higher than that (0.56±0.34) of control group (P<0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
Alarming could improve the compliance with weekly oral bisphosphonate in patients with osteoporosis.
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Soonchunhyang University Hospital Seoul, Seoul, Korea.
Jae-Hwi
JH
Nho
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seongnam, Korea.
Young-Kyun
YK
Lee
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Chung-Ang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Yong-Chan
YC
Ha
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Soonchunhyang University Hospital Seoul, Seoul, Korea.
Chung-Hyun
CH
Kim
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Soonchunhyang University Hospital Seoul, Seoul, Korea.
You-Sung
YS
Suh
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seongnam, Korea.
Kyung-Hoi
KH
Koo
Bisphosphonate osteoporosis; Patient compliance