How texting patients on statins could save lives

SENDING text messages to remind people on statins to take their medication could save thousands of lives a year, say researchers.

The simple tactic – known as ‘nudging’ – can also be carried out by email or on the phone.

Statins reduce cholesterol to cut the risk of a second heart attack or stroke by almost half.

But only 6 per cent of patients adhere to their prescription, US academics warn. Dr Benjamin Horne, director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at the Intermountain Healthcare Heart Institute in Salt Lake City, Utah, said: ‘Reminding patients to take medication can give a much better chance of survival.’

His team studied 186 heart patients, half of whom received nudges while the rest were left to reorder their prescriptions when they ran low. Those who were nudged were far more likely to take their statins.

Six million Britons are on statins. But a study found this year that half did not gain a healthy blood count after two years because they didn’t take them.

Other research has shown that those who fail to take their statins are three times more likely to die within a year.