In recipients of renal transplant the effect of sending a reminder short message on immunesupressive drug use compliance

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of sending reminder text messages on immunosuppressive drug use compliance in kidney transplant recipients. Materials and Methods: This study is a randomized controlled trial. A total of 100 kidney transplant recipients, 50 in the intervention group and 50 in the control group, participated in the study. Reminder text messages were sent every day, four times a day, in the 7th, 8th and 9th months after the transplant during the intervention periods. No intervention was made in the control group. No intervention was made in the control group. In addition, the results of the 7th, 8th and 9th month tacrolimus blood levels of the participants in both groups were recorded. In the study, "Socio-Demographic and Descriptive Characteristics Form" and "Scale of Adjustment to Immunosuppressive Drug Use" were applied. Data analysis was performed with descriptive statistics and parametric tests using. Statistical significance was accepted as p<0.05. Results: It was determined that the patients in the control and intervention groups were homogeneously distributed to the groups (p>0.05) It was determined that sending daily reminder text messages to transplant recipients positively affected the increase in drug adherence scale scores at the end of the study independently (β=0.356, p<0.001). The mean tacrolimus blood plasma levels of the control and intervention groups were statistically similar (p=0.944). In the control group, the rate of drug-adherent patients was 39.5% and 16.7% in the intervention group, and the rate of non-adherent patients in the control group was found to be significantly higher. Conclusion: In this study, it was determined that it was statistically and clinically effective in increasing the compliance of immunosuppressive drug use by sending reminder text messages to kidney transplant recipients. In order to increase the drug compliance of transplant recipients, it is recommended to expand the application of reminder short messages, which is a simple technological method. Keywords: kidney transplant, reminder text message, ımmunosuppressive drugs, medication compliance, nursing