The way a medication comes wrapped may make a difference in how well people follow their prescriptions, researchers said Monday.

In a study of 88 older adults on high blood pressure medication, the investigators found that those whose medication was dispensed in blister packs, rather than a bottle, were more likely to refill their prescriptions on time.

More importantly, they tended to show better blood pressure control.

Blister packs are cards that house individual pills in separate plastic bubbles, each backed with foil. Many medications intended for short-term use are packaged this way, but drugs that treat chronic conditions like high blood pressure usually come in the traditional pill bottle.

The new findings, say the study authors, suggest that blister packs may be a better way to go.

“It’s easier for people to take their medications the right way,” lead author Philip Schneider, a professor of pharmacy at Ohio State University in Columbus, said in a phone interview.

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He presented his team’s findings Monday in Washington, D.C., at a meeting of the American Heart Association.

It’s known, said Schneider, that about half of all patients on long-term medications fail to take them properly. In particular, elderly adults - who are often on several prescriptions - can have a hard time remembering to take their drugs on a daily basis.

So Schneider and his colleagues decided to see whether packaging a blood pressure medication in blister packs, marked with the day each dose was to be taken, would make a difference in compliance.

During the 2-year study, they found that while roughly two-thirds of patients who took bottled medication got timely refills - a higher-than-average percentage, Schneider noted - that figure was above 80 percent among men and women given blister packs.

In addition, over one year, 48 percent of patients in the blister-pack group had a drop in their diastolic pressure - the second number in a blood pressure reading - compared with 18 percent of those who used bottled pills.

Already, people can use plastic pill calendars-boxes with individual medication holders for each day of the week - to help them remember to take their bottled prescriptions. But, Schneider noted, that still requires an elderly person to remember to fill each holder regularly with the proper medication.

Though his study was small, he said he thinks the findings are strong enough to show that blister packs have an advantage over pill bottles.

The study was funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Merck & Co. Inc., the maker of the drug used in the study, lisinopril, supplied the medication, while Dublin, Ohio-based Cardinal Health provided the blister packs. Schneider has served as a speaker for a company recently acquired by Cardinal.