RESEARCH - Taking pills as recommended cuts mortality risk

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Taking pills as recommended cuts mortality risk

Last Updated: 2006-06-30 9:44:03 -0400 (Reuters Health)

By Anne Harding

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who take recommended medicines regularly

are healthier than those who don't, even if those medicines are placebos, a

new study shows.

The findings are evidence for the so-called " healthy adherer effect, "

meaning that a person who follows instructions for taking medications is

likely to follow other health recommendations as well.

" Not only is taking medicines regularly beneficial, because you get the

benefits of the drug, it's also a marker for following other healthy

recommendations, like following a healthy diet, exercising regularly, trying

to stop smoking if you're a smoker, going to see your physician regularly

for checkups, " Dr. Scot H. Simpson of the University of Alberta in Edmonton,

the study's first author, told Reuters Health.

Simpson and his team analyzed the results of 21 studies that included a

total of 46,847 people, and report the results in the British Medical

Journal. They found that participants who took an active medication

regularly were 44% less likely to die during the course of a study than

those who did not, while people who adhered to recommendations for taking

placebo had a 45% lower risk of death.

Three of the studies were of medications later found to be harmful, and the

researchers found that people who took these dangerous drugs regularly had a

three-fold greater mortality risk. This suggests, Simpson said, that " we can

look at people that have very good adherence versus those that have very

poor adherence and see if there's difference in the rate of those adverse

effects, that can tell us something about the harmful effects of the drug. "

The findings underscore the key role that people can play in their own

health, Simpson said. " When I saw the results of the study it just

reinforced my belief that we have a role as pharmacists and as health care

professionals to educate the patient and involve the patient in treatment

decisions, " he explained.

In an editorial accompanying the study, Dr. Betty Chewning of the University

of Wisconsin at Madison writes, " It is quite possible, therefore, that

people who adhere to healthy lifestyles also tend to take care of themselves

by greater adherence to prescribed treatments. "

SOURCE: British Medical Journal, July 1, 2006.

http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2006/06/30/eline/links/20060630elin001.html

Not an MD

I'll tell you where to go!

Mayo Clinic in Rochester

http://www.mayoclinic.org/rochester

s Hopkins Medicine

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org