Patients on hypertension and lipid-lowering medications not sticking to prescriptions

May 24 2005

A new study designed to look at how well patients with high blood pressure and dyslipidemia (high cholesterol levels) coped with their medication, has discovered that within six months many patients fail to take blood pressure or cholesterol medication properly.

The study by ValueMedics Research looked at how well patients adhered to a drug regimen that included both anti-hypertensive and lipid-lowering medications.

They found that the percentage of patients adhering to both anti-hypertensive and lipid-lowering dropped sharply during the course of the study, with 44.7 percent maintaining their treatment regimen at three months, 35.9 percent at six months and 35.8 percent at 12 months. At each time interval, an additional 25.3 to 29.6 percent were taking one, but not both, drugs as prescribed.

The researchers also found that patients who were taking prescription medication during the year before treatment were more likely to follow their regimen as directed. The fewer prescribed medications a patient had taken, the more likely they would stray from the anti-hypertensive and lipid-lowering therapy.

The study's finding were published in the May 23 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

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