Adherence to statin treatment following a XXXX : an Italian population-based survey.

@entity1 @entity583 @entity2316 @entity6817
BACKGROUND: Statins are standard therapies after @entity583 ( @entity583 ) in the general population. In the current study, we assessed adherence to statin treatment by @entity1 after an @entity583 in Italy, and estimated the effect of in-hospital statin therapy on persistence in treatment during a 2-year follow-up. @entity1 AND METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort observation study of @entity1 who experienced their @entity583 between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2005. @entity1 to enroll were identified by a diagnosis of @entity583 at discharge from hospital. Previous drug therapies and hospital admissions for cardiovascular reasons in the 12 months before hospitalization for @entity583 , statin treatment and lipid levels during hospitalization, indication for statin treatment at hospital discharge, and adherence to statin treatment in the following 24 months using an integrated analysis of administrative databases and hospital case records were evaluated. Also, factors associated either positively or negatively with consistent acute and long-term use of this efficacy-proven therapy were evaluated. RESULTS: We identified 3,369 @entity1 : 28.5% of @entity1 had not been consistently treated with statins during their hospital stay for @entity583 , and 36.2% of @entity1 did not receive a statin prescription at hospital discharge. Of the 2,629 @entity1 persistent with treatment during the follow-up, only 1,431 had an adherence to @entity6817 >80%. Either during the hospitalization or during the follow-up, the use of statins was negatively associated with older age and the presence of @entity2316 . Lipid levels were significantly higher in treated than in untreated @entity1 , but did not contribute to adherence to treatment. An important factor in long-term adherence to statin treatment was a statin prescription at the time of hospital discharge. CONCLUSION: Since the statin undertreatment rate in routine care is still high, physicians need to increase the awareness of @entity1 regarding the implications of discontinuation and/or underuse of their medications and encourage higher adherence.
