(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Medicine can be a very effective way to treat chronic ailments like diabetes, high blood pressure, and elevated cholesterol, but only if patients actually the medication their doctor has prescribed. Now, researchers at the Mayo Clinic have devised a new tool that could increase patients' compliance with life-saving medications.

In order to find out whether doctor-patient dialogues can influence a patient's decision to take a statin to lower cholesterol, researchers videotaped two groups of participants. One group was asked a distinct set of four questions which included, "What is your risk of having a heart attack in 10 years?" "What are the benefits of taking statins as compared to not taking statins? "What side effects can you expect from statins? "What do you want to do now?" Participants in the second group were not asked to answer a distinct set of questions and engaged in ordinary dialogue with their doctor. Based on their findings, researchers concluded 84 percent of patients in the first group were satisfied with the decision aid, while only half of all participants in the second group were satisfied with the standard, unstructured dialogue.

"The decision aid plainly and simply displays for a patient his or her risk of heart attack in the next 10 years with and without a statin," Victor Montori, M.D., an endocrinologist at Mayo Clinic and lead investigator of the study, was quoted as saying. "If my risk of having a heart attack is very small, a pill that reduces that risk may not be worth it for me, but if my risk is really high, a pill that reduces that risk sounds compelling." Researchers report that in participants who used the decision-aid, statin use tripled after three months. They suggest patients are more likely to adhere to prescribed medication if they played an active role the decision-making process.

After assessing the outcomes of this study, Dr. Montori reports communication can play a key role in facilitating a healthy, productive doctor-patient relationship and suggests clinicians take a more active role in helping their patients assess their health decisions.