Medication Adherance

OBJECTIVES: Evaluate the utility of 2 electronic medical record (EMR)-linked, automated phone reminder interventions for improving adherence to cardiovascular disease medications. STUDY DESIGN: A 1-year, parallel arm, pragmatic clinical trial in which 21,752 adults were randomized to receive either usual care (UC) or 1 of 2 interventions in the form of interactive voice recognition calls-regular (IVR) or enhanced (IVR+). The interventions used automated phone reminders to increase adherence to cardiovascular disease medications...

OBJECTIVES: To examine the associations between racial/ethnic concordance and blood pressure (BP) control, and to determine whether patient trust and medication adherence mediate these associations. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study of 723 hypertensive African-American and white patients receiving care from 205 white and African-American providers at 119 primary care clinics, from 2001 to 2005. Racial/ethnic concordance was characterized as dyads where both the patient and physician were of the same race/ethnicity; discordance occurred in dyads where the patient was African-American and the physician was white...

OBJECTIVE: Persons with depressive symptoms generally have higher rates of medication nonadherence than persons without depressive symptoms. However, little is known about whether this association differs by comorbid medical condition or whether reasons for nonadherence differ by depressive symptoms or comorbid medical condition. METHODS: Self-reported extent of nonadherence, reasons for nonadherence, and depressive symptoms among 1,026 veterans prescribed medications for hypertension, dyslipidemia, and/or type 2 diabetes were assessed...

PURPOSE: To examine the annual rate and cumulative prevalence of statin use in Denmark 2004-10, including adherence of use and attainment of cholesterol targets. METHODS: We included all individuals aged 18-86 years with a first statin prescription in Northern Denmark in 2004-10. We calculated the annual rate and cumulative prevalence of statin use. We examined cholesterol values before and after start of statins and the proportion reaching targets according to European guidelines and cardiovascular risk group...

This study examined whether neighborhood social environment was related to patterns of adherence to oral hypoglycemic agents among primary care patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Residents in neighborhoods with high social affluence, high residential stability, and high neighborhood advantage, compared to residents in neighborhoods with one or no high features present, were significantly more likely to have an adherent pattern compared to a nonadherent pattern. Neighborhood social environment may influence patterns of adherence...

AIMS: A population-based cohort study design was used to estimate persistence rate, re-initiation rate after discontinuation, and adherence level among incident users of oral antidiabetics (OADs), and to investigate predictors of non-persistence and non-adherence. METHODS: Incident OAD users were identified using healthcare databases of residents covered by the public drug insurance plan of the Province of Quebec, Canada. Patients initiated OAD therapy between January 2000 and October 2009 and were aged 45-85 years at cohort entry...

This paper assesses whether the concession card, which offers discounted out-of-pocket costs for prescription medicines in Australia, affects discontinuation and adherence to statin therapy. The analysis uses data from the Australian Hypertension and Absolute Risk Study (AusHEART), which involves patients aged 55 years and over who visited a GP between April and June 2008. Socioeconomic and clinical information was collected and linked to administrative data on pharmaceutical use. Patients without a concession card were 63% more likely (hazard ratio (HR) 95% confidence interval (CI): 1...

BACKGROUND: The global prevalence of diabetes is increasing. Medications are a recommended strategy to control hyperglycaemia. However, patient adherence can be variable, impacting health outcomes. A range of interventions for patients with type 2 diabetes have focused on improving treatment adherence. This review evaluates the impact of these interventions on adherence to anti-diabetic medications and focuses on the methods and tools used to measure adherence. METHOD: Medline, Embase, CINAHL, IPA, PUBmed, and PsychINFO were searched for relevant articles published in 2000-2013, using appropriate search terms...

IMPORTANCE: Most patients with asthma take fewer than half of prescribed doses of controller medication. Interventions to improve adherence have typically been costly, impractical, and at best only minimally successful. OBJECTIVE: To test a speech recognition (SR) intervention to improve adherence to pediatric asthma controller medication. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: The Breathe Well study was a 24-month pragmatic randomized clinical trial...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

PURPOSE: We examined how the choice of historic medication use criteria for identifying prevalent users may bias estimated adherence changes associated with a medication copayment increase. METHODS: From pharmacy claims data in a retrospective cohort study, we identified 6,383 prevalent users of oral diabetes medications from four VA Medical Centers. Patients were included in this prevalent cohort if they had one fill both 3 months prior and 4-12 months prior to the index date, defined as the month in which medication copayments increased...

OBJECTIVE: Assess impact of Medicare Part D benefit phases on adherence with evidence-based medications after hospitalization for an acute myocardial infarction. DATA SOURCE: Random 5 percent sample of Medicare beneficiaries. STUDY DESIGN: Difference-in-difference analysis of drug adherence by AMI patients stratified by low-income subsidy (LIS) status and benefit phase. DATA COLLECTION/EXTRACTION METHODS: Subjects were identified with an AMI diagnosis in Medicare Part A files between April 2006 and December 2007 and followed until December 2008 or death (N = 8,900)...

BACKGROUND: Adherence to medications is an essential part of heart failure self-care. Poor medication adherence leads to increased rates of exacerbation causing hospitalizations and increased morbidity and mortality. AIMS: This meta-analysis aimed to quantify the effect of interventions to improve adherence to heart failure medications on adherence outcomes. METHODS: Comprehensive search methods identified studies testing interventions designed to improve medication adherence among patients with heart failure...

OBJECTIVES: Given that many patients with chronic diseases face cost-related barriers to care, we evaluated patients’ views on which providers (both physicians and nonphysicians) to involve and which methods to use to screen for those barriers. We also examined patients’ preferences for how physicians consider cost-efficacy trade-offs in decisions. STUDY DESIGN: A national survey of 1400 randomly sampled adults with a chronic disease seeking financial assistance (842 respondents)...

BACKGROUND: Optimal adherence with antihypertensive medications is crucial to prevent hypertension-related complications. This study evaluated whether the duration of initial antihypertensive prescription is associated with better medication adherence in a large sample of Chinese hypertensive patients. METHODS AND RESULTS: From a validated clinical database which consists of all patients in the public healthcare sector in Hong Kong, all patients on their first-ever antihypertensive agent from 2001 to 2005 (N=203,259) were included and followed-up for 12 months (and up to 5 years in separate analyses)...

Pharmaceutical companies have long focused their marketing strategies on getting doctors to write more prescriptions. But they lose billions in potential sales when patients do not take their prescribed drugs. Getting patients to "adhere" to drug therapies that have unpleasant side effects and questionable efficacy requires more than mere ad campaigns urging patients to talk to their doctors. It requires changing patients' beliefs and attitudes about their medications through repeated contact from people patients trust...

BACKGROUND: The decrease in utility attributed to taking pills for cardiovascular prevention can have major effects on the cost-effectiveness of interventions but has not been well studied. We sought to measure the utility of daily pill-taking for cardiovascular prevention. METHODS AND RESULTS: We conducted a cross-sectional Internet-based survey of 1000 US residents aged ≥30 in March 2014. We calculated utility values, using time trade-off as our primary method and standard gamble and willingness-to-pay techniques as secondary analyses...

OBJECTIVES: To examine the relationship between 6-month medication adherence and 1-year downstream heart disease-related readmission among patients who survived a myocardial infarction (MI). STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective, nested case-control analysis of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries who were discharged alive post MI in 2008 (n = 168,882). METHODS: Patients in the case group had their first heart-disease-related readmission post MI discharge during the 6-to-9-month period or the 9-to-12-month period...

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to determine whether dosing schedule requirements impair overall cardiovascular drug adherence. METHODS: A cohort study was performed with hospitalized patients at high risk of cardiovascular disease between April and September 2011. Patients were asked whether the prescribed time for taking their statin and antiplatelet drugs created any inconvenience in their daily routine and, if so, were asked to describe the reasons. Patient adherence to treatment was assessed using the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8)...

Statin adherence is often limited by side effects. The SLCO1B1*5 variant is a risk factor for statin side effects and exhibits statin-specific effects: highest with simvastatin/atorvastatin and lowest with pravastatin/rosuvastatin. The effects of SLCO1B1*5 genotype guided statin therapy (GGST) are unknown. Primary care patients (n = 58) who were nonadherent to statins and their providers received SLCO1B1*5 genotyping and guided recommendations via the electronic medical record (EMR). The primary outcome was the change in Beliefs about Medications Questionnaire, which measured patients' perceived needs for statins and concerns about adverse effects, measured before and after SLCO1B1*5 results...