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Expanded medication regimen acceptable to many patients with HF
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Patients with HF reported they were willing to take additional medications for the treatment of their condition despite already taking several medications, according to an analysis published in The American Journal of Cardiology.
Matthew T. Mefford, PhD, PhD candidate at the University of Alabama at Birmingham at the time of the study and currently a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of research and evaluation at Kaiser Permanente in Pasadena, California, and colleagues analyzed data from 357 patients (mean age, 76 years; 51% men) with HF from the REGARDS study who reported taking beta-blockers. These patients had HF with preserved ejection fraction (n = 78; mean age, 77 years; 41% men), HF with reserved or midrange ejection fraction (n = 124; mean age, 77 years; 57% men) or HF with an unknown ejection fraction (n = 155; mean age, 77 years; 50% men).
In addition to the interviews and examinations conducted in the REGARDS study, these patients also completed a survey to collect information on their medications. Questions were asked about their frequency of missed pills, number of prescriptions taken per day, willingness to take additional pills and reasons for not taking medications. Another portion of the survey focused on beta-blockers, specifically reasons for stopping, symptoms, discussion of symptoms with health care providers and recommendations for symptom management from health care providers.
Of the patients in the study, 25% reported taking 11 to 15 medications per day, and 17% reported taking more than 15 medications per day. Nearly half of patients (45%) reported that they did not miss taking their daily medications.
Several reasons were indicated as the reason behind their willingness to take one more medication, such as to prevent an ED visit (92%), prevent an unplanned outpatient provider visit (85%) and to prevent an unplanned hospital stay (94%).
More than half of patients (56%) reported that they did not speak with their health care providers about symptoms from taking beta-blockers.
Patients who were hospitalized for HF were more likely to report taking beta-blockers for the treatment of HF (OR = 1.51; 95% CI, 1.19-1.91). Those with hypertension were also more likely to report taking beta-blockers for the treatment of high BP (OR = 2.42; 95% CI, 1.79-3.26).
“Better understanding of an individual’s medication-taking behaviors and perceptions may facilitate optimization of HF treatments,” Mefford and colleagues wrote. – by Darlene Dobkowski
Disclosures: The analysis was supported by Amgen. Mefford reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the study for all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.
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