The effect of placebo adherence on reducing cardiovascular mortality: a meta-analysis

We aim to demonstrate the effect of placebo adherence on reducing CV mortality.

Good adherence, whether to drug or placebo treatment, is associated with lower CV mortality. However, current evidence for the positive effect of placebo adherence on reducing CV mortality is relatively weak.

We conducted a fixed-effect meta-analysis of eight randomized clinical trials to evaluate the effect of placebo adherence on reducing CV mortality. We made a comparison between good placebo adherence and poor drug adherence.

Compared with poor adherence to drug treatment, good adherence to placebo treatment was associated with lower CV mortality (OR = 0.68, 95% CI 0.60-0.77).

Good adherence to placebo has a positive effect on reducing CV mortality. The effect of adherence on reducing CV mortality may be independent of the drug effect.