Treatment persistence and compliance with a combination of calcium and vitamin D

The persistence and compliance of patients in Spain with calcium and vitamin D supplementation are unknown, and thus the purpose of the present study was to determine the current figures.

This was a multicenter, cross-sectional study. Throughout Spain, 1342 primary-care physicians and specialists were asked to recruit 7888 patients aged 45 years or over, who had been prescribed with a calcium and vitamin D combination (CaVitD) at least 1 year prior to the study. Data on biodemographics, the reason for prescription and fracture risk factors were collected. Persistence with treatment, reasons for discontinuation, and compliance among persistent patients were assessed and patients' profiles analyzed.

From the recruited sample, a total of 7624 patients were finally analyzed. Most subjects were postmenopausal (mean age 65.7 ± 9.4 years). The main reason for CaVitD prescription was osteoporosis (56.3%), started 2-5 years earlier. A family history of osteoporosis (41.4%) and previous fractures (40.7%) occurred frequently in the patients' clinical histories. At the study visit, 27.7% had discontinued CaVitD treatment, the main reason being fatigue due to the long-term treatment. Just 31.2% of persistent patients were adherent. Non-persistent patients were more likely to be smokers, alcohol consumers, have a long immobilization history, malabsorption syndrome and previous bone fractures.

Only two in ten patients effectively comply with CaVitD treatment after 1 year or more of its prescription.