This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Multifaceted intervention improved medication adherence after acute coronary syndrome
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
DALLAS — Medication adherence in acute coronary syndrome improved significantly when health care providers implemented a multifaceted intervention approach in the year after hospitalization, according to study data presented at AHA 2013.
“These results suggest that hospitals and providers should develop systems of care to improve and maintain adherence to medications shown to reduce the risk of recurrent heart attacks and death,” P. Michael Ho, MD, PhD, staff cardiologist at VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System in Denver, said in a press release.
In the study, 241 patients were randomly assigned to traditional care (n=119) or interventional care (n=122), which consisted of: pharmacist-led medication reconciliations and tailoring; patient education; collaborative care between pharmacist and primary care provider or cardiologist; and two types of voice messaging consisting of educational and medication refill reminder calls that lasted for 1 year after discharge from the hospital.
Researchers looked at the proportion of patients who adhered to medications based on mean proportion of days covered (>0.8) in the year studied. They used pharmacy refill data to determine this coverage.
The researchers reported that 89.3% of patients in the intervention group were adherent while 73.9% of the traditional care group adhered to their medications (P=.003). Average proportion of days covered also was higher in the intervention group (0.94 vs. 0.87; P<.001). These adherence rates were seen for clopidogrel (87% vs. 71%; P=.03), statins (93% vs. 82%; P<.001) and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers (92% vs. 82%; P=.03), although not for beta-blockers (88% vs. 85%; P=.59).
“The adherence levels in this study for both the enhanced follow-up and standard care groups were higher than adherence levels seen in many other patient groups, so an enhanced system such as the one studied might have an even greater impact outside of the VA,” Ho said.
For more information:
Ho PM. Abstract #19651. Presented at: the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions; Nov; 16-20, 2013; Dallas.
Disclosure: Ho reported no relevant financial disclosures.