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Published on: February 26, 2013

Adherence and dosing frequency of common medications for cardiovascular patients

Jay P Bae1, Paul P Dobesh, Donald G Klepser

  • 1College of Pharmacy, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198-6045, USA.

The American Journal of Managed Care
|March 23, 2012
PubMed

Insights

Once-daily (QD) dosing significantly improved medication adherence compared to twice-daily (BID) dosing for chronic cardiovascular disease medications. This finding highlights the importance of dosing frequency for patient adherence and treatment effectiveness.

Area of Science:

  • Pharmacology and Pharmaceutics
  • Cardiovascular Medicine
  • Health Services Research

Background:

  • Medication adherence is crucial for managing chronic cardiovascular diseases.
  • Dosing frequency (once-daily vs. twice-daily) can significantly impact patient adherence.
  • Understanding adherence patterns for different dosing regimens is essential for optimizing patient outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare medication adherence between once-daily (QD) and twice-daily (BID) dosing regimens.
  • To evaluate adherence for chronic-use prescription medications in patients with cardiovascular disease.
  • To identify potential differences in adherence based on therapeutic class and dosing frequency.

Main Methods:

  • Retrospective cohort database analysis of 1,077,474 patients aged over 18 years.
  • Included patients with prescriptions for antidiabetic, antihyperlipidemic, antiplatelet, or cardiac agents between January 1 and December 31, 2007.
  • Adherence measured by medication possession ratio (MPR); analyzed using generalized estimating equations, controlling for covariates.

Main Results:

  • Overall adjusted mean MPR was 13.6% higher for QD dosing compared to BID dosing (0.66 vs. 0.57, P < .01).
  • QD dosing showed significantly greater adherence in antidiabetic (2.9%), antihyperlipidemic (17.5%), and antiplatelet (29.4%) classes.
  • Cardiac agents showed similar adherence between QD and BID, with QD carvedilol slightly outperforming BID carvedilol (11% difference, P < .01).

Conclusions:

  • Once-daily (QD) dosing regimens are associated with significantly greater medication adherence compared to twice-daily (BID) regimens.
  • The findings suggest that simplifying dosing schedules can improve patient adherence in chronic disease management.
  • Further research may explore patient-specific factors influencing adherence across different dosing frequencies.
Abstract

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