People would be much more likely to take preventative medicines if they could all be combined into one pill, a major new study involving Irish scientists and participants has shown.

This marks the first study to examine the impact of a polypill in people with heart disease. A polypill is a pill that provides a fixed dose of a combination of medicines.

It is already well established that people who have suffered a heart attack or stroke reduce their risk of suffering another if they take aspirin, blood pressure-lowering drugs and cholesterol-lowering drugs in the long-term.

However, only around half of people in high income countries with heart disease take everything they are supposed to in the long-term. While in low- and middle-income countries, this figures falls as low as 5%. As a result, tens of millions of people are at risk.

This study followed the progress of just over 2,000 people in Ireland, the UK, the Netherlands and India. Each person was randomly selected to receive either the polypoll or their usual drug combination.

Most of the participants had already suffered a heart attack or stroke. The remainder were at high risk due to risk factors such as smoking and high blood pressure.

The scientists found that people were much more likely to take multiple medications if they were combined into one pill.

"We know that the majority of people who suffer a heart attack or stroke either never take the correct protective medications, or stop taking them within a year of the event. The findings of this study suggest that providing the four drugs in a single pill is a very helpful preventive step," explained Prof Alice Stanton of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and Beaumont Hospital in Dublin.

She noted that ‘both blood pressure and cholesterol levels improved in those taking the polypill' because the group taking it ‘took the recommended medications more regularly'.

"Also of importance, large numbers of the trial participants are very keen to restart the polypill if and when it is made available," she noted.

According to Prof Simon Thom of Imperial College London, these results show that polypills ‘are a viable strategy for heart attack and stroke survivors'.

"This is most relevant to the large number of high-risk individuals globally who currently don't take recommended medications long-term," he explained.

The scientists pointed out that while the World Health Organisation has noted the potential health benefits and cost savings of this approach for more than 10 years, this is the first study to actually shows its direct benefits.

"Taking aspirin, a cholesterol-lowering drug and two blood pressure-lowering drugs typically costs an Irish patient in excess of €80 per month. Use of a polypill could reduce drug costs to less than €20 per month," Prof Stanton added.

Details of these findings are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

For more information on heart disease, see our Heart Disease Clinic here