Adherence and persistence in the use of statins and ezetimibe over 8 years in a real-life study.
BACKGROUND
Adherence and persistence to treatment are crucial in statin therapy as they are synonymous with efficacy and quality of care. The aim of this study was the real-life assessment of adherence and persistence over eight years in treatment-naive patients receiving atorvastatin, lovastatin, simvastatin, pravastatin, ezetimibe.


METHODS
Adherence to treatment was calculated using the 'proportion of days covered' method and persistence as the difference between the start and end of the therapy under study.


RESULTS
Treatment adherence was consistently above 85% for all drugs under study in each year. Treatment persistence was shown to half halved already from the first year.


CONCLUSION
Adherent patients had a higher persistence than non-adherent patients.
['Santoleri|Fiorenzo|F|', 'Romagnoli|Alessia|A|', 'Costantini|Alberto|A|']
Adherence persistence statins drug-used study