Discontinuation rates of XXXX medications in a managed care population.

@entity1 @entity16495 @entity726 @entity6839
BACKGROUND: Rates of medication discontinuation reflect factors including effectiveness, tolerability, cost, and dosing frequency. Discontinuation data can be useful to physicians and health plan managers as they compare various @entity726 medications. OBJECTIVE: To compare rates of discontinuation of therapy in @entity1 initially prescribed monotherapy with a @entity726 medication. METHODS: Members of a managed care plan who filled at least 1 prescription for latanoprost, @entity6839 , or @entity16495 during a 30-month period were eligible to participate in this study. Prescription refill records for all @entity726 agents used in the plan were extracted for the study period. Rates of discontinuation of initial @entity726 therapy were compared using Cox regression methods; Kaplan-Meier survival curves were generated. RESULTS: A total of 72,744 prescriptions were eligible, of which 48491 were for study drugs. Latanoprost was the most frequently dispensed therapy (accounting for 49.7% of study drugs), followed by @entity6839 (30.6%), and @entity16495 (19.6%). After inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, 2283 @entity1 were included in analyses. Latanoprost-treated @entity1 were significantly less likely to discontinue medication than were those treated with @entity6839 or @entity16495 . Kaplan-Meier survival curves confirmed that latanoprost-treated @entity1 exhibited the greatest persistency with therapy. CONCLUSION: In this managed care setting, rates of discontinuation in @entity1 initially treated with latanoprost were lower than those of @entity1 receiving comparator drugs.
