Opportunity 

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Statins lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of myocardial infarction by 30 percent. Still, even among patients who have had a heart attack, nearly half stop taking their statin medications within a year of their initial prescription. 

Behavioral economics studies have shown that social networks can motivate people to engage in beneficial actions like medication adherence, but these approaches are not well-studied. 

Intervention 

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania leveraged Way to Health to test whether social support and automated alerts could improve medication adherence in 162 CVS employees prescribed statins over six months.   

Participants were randomly assigned to one of the groups listed below and received a pill bottle that wirelessly transmitted bottle opening data back to the study team.  

• Control

• Social support (partner)

• Automated adherence alert messages (alert)

• Both social support and alerts (partner + alert) 

Participants in arms with social support were asked to name a medication adherence partner (MAP) to help them take their medication. Participants in arms with alerts received emails, text messages, or automated phone calls if they had failed to adhere to their medication protocol. 

Impact 

Automated alerts were effective at improving medication adherence. However, assigning a MAP did not significantly affect adherence rates.