Evaluation of patients’ adherence to statins in Poland

Abstract

Introduction:

High efficacy of statin therapy in primary and secondary prevention of coronary heart disease (CHD) has been confirmed in numerous clinical trials. However, studies’ results do not reflect patient benefits in everyday clinical practice. Observed discrepancies are the result of patients’ failure to comply with medical recommendations regarding both non-pharmacological and pharmacological treatment. Non-compliance can lead to serious health and economic consequences.

Objectives:

The purpose of the presented study was the retrospective analysis of compliance in patients treated with statins on the basis of Polish reimbursement data from the National Health Fund (NFZ).

Methods:

Medication Possession Ratio (MPR) was used for the compliance assessment; proportion of patients achieving the minimum level of compliance which ensure a satisfactory clinical response was also evaluated. Number of days to discontinuation was calculated in order to estimate patient persistence representing the time over which a patient continues to fill a prescription.

Results:

The results of the analysis indicate that only 12% of the population of patients treated with statins demonstrates proper level of both compliance and persistence. Statistically significant differences were found among different patient groups; however, in all the groups, compliance was lower than the minimal level required for clinical benefits.

Conclusions:

The study revealed poor compliance among patients receiving statin prescriptions for hyperlipidaemia treatment. We persume that the most important factor for non-adherence can be lack of proper patient education, thus all patients on statin treatment should receive sufficient attention, supervision and better information.

Key words::

• Adherence
• Compliance
• National Health Fund data
• Persistence
• Refill data
• Statins

Transparency

Declaration of funding

The authors declare no relevant funding.

Declaration of financial/other relationships

B.W. and A.S. have disclosed that they have no significant relationships with or financial interests in any commercial companies related to this study or article.

Acknowledgement

The authors thank the Polish National Health Fund in Zielona Góra for providing the database.