Study initiated to assess impact of monitoring app on stroke treatment compliance

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston has initiated a study assessing the ability of a physician-monitored app to improving treatment compliance among minority patients with first-time stroke, according to a press release.

“When I saw patients in the first month after a stroke, they were doing what they needed to be doing because they were scared,” researcher Nneka Ifejika, MD, MPH, associate professor of neurology and director of neurorehabilitation at the University of Texas Health Science Center, said in the release. “But after 4 or 5 months, they got comfortable and fell into old habits. Their weight started to pick up and they needed increasing levels of medication.”

In the study, all participants will receive dietary counseling, measuring cups and a cookbook, and will be randomly assigned to also receive either a food diary or the app to track their compliance.

The free app, Lose It!, monitors patients’ dietary intake and exercise levels, and also features a community group to allow participants to communicate with one another. Researchers will be able to track patients’ status, as well as encourage and remind patients to keep up with their regimen, according to the release. They will also assess objective factors including cholesterol, weight, vital signs and inflammatory markers, along with feelings of loneliness and depression, which can affect a patient’s ability to comply with medical management, Ifejika said.

The study is being funded through the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, a component of the NIH, according to the release.