Nudge boosts statin-prescribing, means fewer pharmacy trips
Statins are lifesaving to those with high cholesterol, but patients don’t always take them. A nudge that increased long-term prescriptions could be key.
2 min. read
With a simple click, doctors can potentially save lives and reduce heart attack and stroke risks for thousands of patients by helping them have their statins on hand. Researchers “nudged” doctors toward this through a default change in the electronic health record that made prescribing a 90-day supply of the medication the default option instead of actively choosing a 30-day supply. The study, conducted by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine, is published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
“For patients managing chronic conditions, this simple change just makes life easier by eliminating eight pharmacy trips annually per medication and reducing chances to be late or forgetting to refill,” says co-author Corinne Rhodes, an associate professor of general internal medicine and the medical director of Population Health at the University of Pennsylvania Health System. “With time, I hope this will translate into closing gaps in hypertension control and other chronic diseases that statins treat.”
A nudge is a behavioral science-informed approach to guiding people toward a desired outcome but the key is making that choice desirable and trouble-free.
“Making the right choice the easy choice is a core tenet of nudging. What’s exciting is that this small change requiring zero additional work on the part of clinicians could have such a profound impact,” says senior author M. Kit Delgado, faculty director of the Nudge Unit and an associate professor of emergency medicine and epidemiology.
In addition to the overall 20 point swing in longer prescriptions, the researchers also saw closures in demographic disparities related to prescription length.
Before the nudges, Hispanic and Black patients, as well as those living in zip codes where the average household income was under $50,000, were significantly less likely to receive 90-day statin prescriptions. For example, while well over 70% of non-Hispanic white patients’ doctors were writing 90-day prescriptions, just above 50% of non-white Hispanic patients’' doctors were, and just roughly 67% of Black patients’ doctors were as well.
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