Clinical consequences of poor adherence to lipid-lowering therapy in patients with cardiovascular disease: can we do better?

There is high-quality evidence demonstrating that early initiation of statin use following an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and persistent use thereafter reduces the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) including mortality. However, despite the overwhelming evidence, adherence remains suboptimal and the medications frequently discontinued.1 Here we discuss the data on lipid-lowering therapy among patients with cardiovascular disease and discuss some potential interventions that address the gap. Among those with established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), poor statin adherence has been reported to be 47.2% in real-world registry data.2 Discontinuation rates have been reported ranging from 14%3 to 26.5%4 at 12 months in both large multicentre randomised clinical trial (RCT) data and national registries, with long-term discontinuation being 51% after 7 years in a large-scale RCT involving 39 countries.3 In a systematic review including 28 studies (5 nested case–control and...
Source: Heart Asia - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: Open access Editorial Source Type: research