Loyalty programs linked to staying on medication

People filling prescriptions at pharmacies with loyalty programs are more likely to stay on their medication, a new University of Alberta study shows.

Researchers looked at Alberta Health data on 160,000 Albertans who took drugs for diabetes (metformin) and high cholesterol (statins) between 2008 and 2014, Scot Simpson, a professor in the faculty of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences who led the research, said Friday.

People with high cholesterol who used pharmacies offering Air Miles, Shoppers Optimum or other programs were 12 per cent less likely to stop taking their medication, according to the study, published earlier this month in the Annals of Pharmacotherapy.

The findings were similar for patients on the diabetes drugs.

“The chance of you stopping at one year is 12 per cent lower if you’re going to a pharmacy with an inducement program than if you went to pharmacies without an inducement program.”

But even though sticking to cholesterol medication has been linked to better health, Simpson’s work didn’t show any direct health impact by going to pharmacies with loyalty programs.

“We would think indirectly there might be something there, because there’s a very strong link if you continue to take these statins … It lowers your risk of having heart attacks or going to hospital or dying,” he said.

“But if you look at it directly, if you go to a pharmacy with an inducement program or without an inducement program, there’s absolutely no difference.”

Other research indicates about 30 per cent of people who start on a statin stop taking it after a year, Simpson said.

People typically stop taking them for such reasons as not feeling the benefits being provided, cost, convenience and side effects, he said.

He became interested in the impact of loyalty programs after the Alberta College of Pharmacists banned pharmacists and pharmacy technicians from offering incentives for prescriptions or professional services in 2014.

A position paper prepared by the college suggested the programs could put patient health at risk, potentially by encouraging them to buy more than needed, delay filling or prematurely filling prescriptions, or hop between pharmacies to take advantage of specials.

A judge overturned the ban last year, but a separate one still applies in British Columbia.

“(The study) points in the direction that we shouldn’t just say a blanket ‘no’ to inducement programs,” Simpson said.

“We should think ‘Is there a better way to use these at the level of the patient?’ There seems to be something there … about a benefit to patients, because they’re sticking to their medications.”

He didn’t know which pharmacies patients used, but could tell from his data whether prescriptions were filled at one of six companies that offered loyalty programs — Sobeys, Safeway, Shoppers Drug Mart, Save-OnFoods, Co-op and Rexall Drugs.

He couldn’t rule out other factors that might have influenced the results, such as store location and environment, the professional services provided, and whether people used a pharmacy because they trusted the pharmacist.

There seems to be something there … about a benefit to patients, because they’re sticking to their medications.