Extra help like reminders got people to take cholesterol pills as prescribed.

The review

1. 01

   Who took part

   The review pooled 35 studies of adults prescribed cholesterol medicine. The USA ran the most of them, and average ages ran from about 49 to about 77.

2. 02

   What they did

   Each study compared extra help with usual care. The extra help included reminders by post, phone or calendar, and talks with pharmacists or nurses. Contacts ranged from one to twelve.

3. 03

   What happened

   Adherence was better with extra help in the short term and after more than six months. Results differed a lot between studies, and dropping the three least intensive studies left a smaller gain. Cholesterol also fell more with extra help in the short term.

What the review found

1. Helped

   Across seven studies, extra help like reminders made people take their pills more often in the first six months.

   Pooled analysis of 7 studies with 11,204 people · vs people who got usual care · the authors rated their certainty moderate · ⚠ the studies disagreed a lot; whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

2. Helped

   Across three studies, extra help made people take their pills more often after six months.

   Pooled analysis of 3 studies with 663 people · vs people who got usual care · the authors rated their certainty high · ⚠ whole programmes were tested, so no single part can be credited

Source