[Reasons for the under-use of secondary prevention therapies in coronary patients over the age of 70 years].

Introduction: Although platelet antiaggregants, beta-blockers and statins have proved their efficacy as secondary prevention in all types of patients with arterial and thrombotic disease, these therapeutic categories remain under-used in the elderly. The reasons for this under-prescription are poorly understood. The aim of this study was to determine the reasons for not prescribing the principal secondary prevention therapies in elderly coronary patients.
Methods: Two transversal pharmaco-epidemiological surveys were carried out in a representative sample of French cardiologists. They included 1489 coronary patients aged 35 to 69 years and 1148 patients aged over 70 years, respectively. Risk factors, medical history, current treatments and reasons for non-prescription of the principal therapies were collected.
Results: In subjects aged 70 years or over, antiaggregants were not prescribed in 24% of patients, versus 7.5% of younger patients. Statins were not prescribed in 37% of those over 70 years, versus 14% of younger patients. Beta-blockers were not prescribed in 42% of elderly patients versus 23% of younger patients. ACE inhibitors were not prescribed in 57.6% of elderly subjects and 48.2% of younger subjects. Combinations of three or four secondary prevention treatments were half as frequently prescribed in patients over the age of 70. According to the physicians, the main reason for non-prescription in elderly patients was a lack of indication, which concerned 8% of the entire sample with respect to antiaggregants, 9% for beta-blockers and 14% for statins. These very high percentages were not found in younger subjects (1%, 3% and 2.5%, respectively).
Conclusion: Our results confirm under-use of the principal secondary prevention therapies in elderly subjects, mainly because of a lack of indication, according to the physicians. In these patients, indications for secondary prevention appear to be tributary to numerous factors, such as age, the type of medical history, the availability of lipid parameters or compliance. In response to questions by practitioners, specific recommendations would be useful concerning secondary prevention in elderly coronary patients.