A study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology shows a strong association between high medication adherence rates and improved outcomes for cardiology patients, as well as lower healthcare costs.
Medication adherence is historically one of the biggest challenges cardiologists face with patients who have had a cardiovascular event, according to Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, director of the Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the study's principal investigator.
"Often, patients diligently follow medication regimens immediately following a [cardiovascular] event, like a heart attack, only to falter as time progresses — either because prescriptions become too expensive or because they become discouraged by the pill burden associated with the post-CV event regimen," Dr. Fuster said.
For the study, Dr. Fuster examined data from Aetna for 4,015 adults who were on statins and ace-inhibitor medications after a heart attack. Of that group, 43 percent were fully adherent, 31 percent were partially adherent and 26 percent were non-adherent.
Researchers found fully adherent patients had a significantly lower risk of long-term major adverse cardiovascular events than partially adherent patients (19 percent risk reduction) and non-adherent patients (27 percent reduction).
Additionally, fully adherent patients had lower per patient annual direct medical costs for hospitalizations for heart attack than partial and non-adherent patients ($369 and $440, respectively).
"These study results raise important questions about what actionable steps cardiologists and others who care for these patients should take to ensure patient adherence to prescribed regimens," Dr. Fuster said.
See the full study here.