People Often Forgo Using Lifesaving Beta Blockers Despite Health Insurance
09/12/2006

This primary finding of the study summarized in this article, ¹ that “[f]ewer than half of the patients who were prescribed beta blocker drugs following a heart attack and who had some prescription drug coverage were regularly taking them during the first year after leaving the hospital,” is hardly surprising and is , indeed, congruent with the results of many other clinical studies dealing with medication compliance.

It is nonetheless an important reaffirmation of the extent of the noncompliance with a medication regimen proven in clinical trials to be effective because of the size and extent of the study (17,000 patients followed for one year after suffering a heart attack). The data was obtained from aggregate data contributed by health plans participating in the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare.

Other useful findings include

• The largest decrease in adherence occurring during the first month post-discharge
• Noncompliance was prominent even though patients had prescription medication insurance coverage
• Younger women with commercial insurance were more likely to fall prey to noncompliance than men their age and older women

Study leader, Judith Kramer, M.D. suggests that “[s]trategies to maintain adherence must focus not only on community physicians to maintain prescribing, but also on patients and their families, and as our results suggest, these strategies need to begin within the first month or two after hospital discharge.”

Footnotes

1. The study itself is published in the September 2006 issue of the American Heart Journal [back]

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