Interventions involving wireless electronic pill bottles, financial incentives and social support may not help improve compliance or clinical outcomes for patients who’ve experienced acute myocardial infarctions, according to a new study.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association this week, aimed to explore the use of wireless tech and behavioral economic approaches on vascular rehospitalizations and medication adherence in health-plan based interventions for AMI patients.
In the randomized, blinded clinical trial researchers followed 1,509 patients who had experienced myocardial infarctions. Patients were placed in 2 arms, with 1003 patients receiving electronic pill bottles, lottery incentives and social support for medication adherence, while 506 experienced usual care.
The primary outcome for the study was time to 1st vascular rehospitalization or death, with secondary outcomes of time to 1st all-cause rehospitalization, total number of repeated hospitalizations, medication adherence and total medical costs.
Results from the study indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between study arms for the primary or secondary endpoints.
“A compound intervention integrating wireless pill bottles, lottery-based incentives, and social support did not significantly improve medication adherence or vascular readmission outcomes for AMI survivors,” study authors wrote in their conclusions
