WHATSAPP: A TOOL FOR ADHERENCE TO ASYMPTOMATIC CHRONIC-DISEASE DRUG THERAPIES? Amanda Caroline Sartori 1,a , Julio de Souza Sá 1,a , Marcelo Picinin Bernuci 2,b , Ely Mitie Massuda 2,b , Tiago Franklin Rodrigues Lucena 2,b and Mirian Ueda Yamaguchi 2,b 1 Unicesumar – Cesumar University Center , Guedner Ave, 1610, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil 2 Unicesumar – Cesumar University Center, Health Promotion Graduate Program and ICETI - Cesumar Institute of Science, Tecnology and Inovation, Guedner Ave, 1610, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil a MSc b PhD ABSTRACT Studies have shown that mobile health (mHealth) technologies are increasingly being successfully used in control programs for symptomatic diseases, such as cancer and HIV, as methods of behavioral intervention to enhance patient adherence to treatments. The objective of this research was to evaluate the potential of WhatsApp messages as an intervention method to improve adherence to the treatment of two asymptomatic diseases: hypertension and diabetes. A controlled trial was conducted with 499 participants from the basic health units of Maringá, Paraná, Brazil. They received 58 WhatApp messages over three months with information about the importance of adherence to drug therapy. Adherence to the therapy was assessed by the Morisky-Green test (MGT). The analysis of the efficacy of the intervention was performed by comparing the MGT test results before and after the messages were sent. The results showed an expressive difference in adherence to the drug therapy for the group that received the WhatsApp messages (67.5%) compared to those who did not receive them (58.5%). However, in contrast to our expectations, there was no significant association between adherence and the intervention group. WhatsApp can be used as a welfare technology in various health-related areas, however it was concluded that, for asymptomatic diseases, mHealth technology interventions can be useful if associated with other strategic processes. KEYWORDS mHealth, Drug-Therapy Compliance, Asymptomatic Diseases, Primary Health Care 1. INTRODUCTION Chronic non-communicable diseases (CNDs) claim the lives of about 38 million people a year in the world. Among these diseases, diabetes mellitus (DM) and systemic arterial hypertension (SAH) are chronic diseases frequently asymptomatic and associated with low therapeutic adherence (Malta et al, 2017). Interventions associated with mobile health (mHealth) technologies have the potential to change health behaviors. These technologies are devices easily introduced into individuals' daily lives (Aurora et al, 2014). Among the mHealth devices, smartphones are personal, portable and allow access to WhatsApp, which is a tool with good acceptance, reaching approximately one billion people nowadays (Ganasegeran et al., 2017). Studies have demonstrated that disease self-management interventions can positively influence the behavior in health (Free et al, 2013). In this context, the objective of this study was to carry out an intervention by means of sending messages through WhatsApp in order to improve adherence to antidiabetic and antihypertensive drug therapy. International Conference e-Health 2019 253