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Effect of patient comorbidities on filling of antihypertensive prescriptions

Tara Lagu1, Mark G Weiner, Susan Eachus

  • 1Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. lagutc@gmail.com

The American Journal of Managed Care
|January 17, 2009
PubMed

Insights

Many antihypertensive prescriptions are not filled. Patients with more noncardiovascular conditions were more likely to fill prescriptions, unlike those with cardiovascular conditions.

Area of Science:

  • Health Services Research
  • Clinical Pharmacy
  • Epidemiology

Background:

  • Adherence to antihypertensive medication is crucial for managing hypertension.
  • Understanding factors influencing prescription filling is vital for improving patient outcomes.
  • Comorbidities may impact medication adherence differently.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine the rate of antihypertensive prescription non-filling.
  • To investigate the association between noncardiovascular disease and filling antihypertensive prescriptions.
  • To examine the association between cardiovascular disease and filling antihypertensive prescriptions.

Main Methods:

  • Cross-sectional study of 1742 antihypertensive prescriptions for 327 adult African Americans in a Medicaid managed care plan.
  • Prescription filling defined as an electronic prescription matched with an insurance claim within 30 days.
  • Adjusted logistic regression used to assess comorbidity type's association with prescription filling, accounting for clustering.

Main Results:

  • 75.1% of antihypertensive prescriptions were filled.
  • Prescriptions for patients with 5+ noncardiovascular comorbidities were more likely to be filled (aOR=1.59).
  • Cardiovascular comorbidities were not significantly associated with filling antihypertensive prescriptions (aOR=0.72).

Conclusions:

  • A significant proportion of antihypertensive prescriptions remain unfilled.
  • Comorbidity type influences antihypertensive prescription filling rates.
  • Further research is needed to generalize findings to diverse populations.
Abstract

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