Improving User Adherence to a Reminder: a Model and Methodology

Abstract

Various reminder systems have emerged to promote users’ health. However, it is hard to say such systems by which person is passively following the instructions can truly meet the goal. This means researchers are under pressure to find the ways of persuading a user to accept the instructions. Seeking the best time to provide the prompts is important to improve user adherence. A methodology is proposed by a following idea where the full benefit of the acceptable reminder will be achieved only if the user is open-minded to an interruption caused by it reasonably and closely. The time for prompting is thus evaluated before a decision on when a user is most receptive. We describe our experience in delivering the attention-sensitive reminders for elder adults to take their medication. Experimental results show that the approach can improve user adherence in an efficient and flexible way.