Treatment patterns and adherence to lipid-lowering drugs during eight-year follow-up after a coronary heart disease event.

Background and Aims: Proper prescription and high adherence to intensive lipid lowering drugs (LLD) in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) are crucial and strongly recommended. The aim of this study is to investigate long-term treatment patterns and adherence to LLD following hospitalization for a CHD event.
Methods: Patients admitted to two Norwegian hospitals with a CHD event from 2011 to 2014 (N = 1094) attended clinical examination and completed a questionnaire, median 16 months later. Clinical data were linked to pharmacy dispensing data from 2010 to 2020. The proportions using high-intensity statin therapy (atorvastatin 40/80 mg or rosuvastatin 20/40 mg) and non-statin LLD after the CHD event were assessed. Adherence was evaluated by proportion of days covered (PDC) and gaps in treatment.
Results: Median age at hospitalization was 63 (IQR 12) years, 21 % were female. Altogether, 1054 patients (96 %) were discharged with a statin prescription, while treatment was dispensed in 85 % within the following 90 days. During median 8 (SD 2.5) years follow-up, the proportion using high-intensity statin therapy ranged 62-68 %, whereas the use of ezetimibe increased from 4 to 26 %. PDC <0.8 was found in 22 % of statin users and 26 % of ezetimibe users. The proportions with a treatment gap exceeding 180 days were 22 % for statins and 28 % for ezetimibe. Smoking at hospitalization and negative affectivity were significantly associated with reduced statin adherence, regardless of adherence measure.
Conclusions: In this long-term follow-up of patients with CHD, less than 70 % used high-intensity statin therapy with only small changes over time, and only 25 % used additional treatment with ezetimibe. We identified factors associated with reduced statin adherence that may be target for interventions.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:IE and CB are affiliated with Oslo Economics and have completed consultancy assignments outside the submitted work for several public and private institutions in recent years. HS is affiliated with Steno Diabetes Center Aarhus and has received consultancy fees from Novartis, Arla Foods AMBA, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer and Neumirna outside the submitted work. EH, ES and TD reports no conflicts of interest. SH has received lecture fees from Sanofi, Novartis, and Pfizer outside the submitted work. JM received lecture fees from Sanofi, Novartis, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Bayer outside the submitted work.
(Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)