Adherence Pattern of Lipid Lowering Drugs in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Dyslipidemia is one of the major risk factors of cardiovascular diseases. Worldwide, dyslipidemia is estimated to cause about 2.6 million deaths annually. Low drug adherence has been found to be a significant problem leading to poor health outcome. Medication non-adherence in chronic conditions is a recognized, but understudied public health problem. The present study was conducted to observe pattern of adherence to lipid lowering drugs, to find out the causes of non-adherence to medication and see the medication adherence in relation to various factor. The study was performed among 125 cardiovascular disease patients (both indoor and outdoor) of Cardiology department in Mymensingh Medical College Hospital (MMCH) who received lipid lowering drugs at least 6 months.Among them 21.6% patients were highly adherent, 34.4% patient showed medium adherent and 44% patients were low adherence to their treatment plan. Most important cause of non-adherence was financial problem (52.04%). Among them 46-55 years age group were highly adherent, male were more adherent to medication than female. Rich patient were highly adherent. Patient with above higher secondary level of education were highly adherent than others. Patients lived in urban area were more adherent than rural patients. Immediate efforts are required to tackle this situation. Multiple kinds of processes are required to improve the drug adherence such as to provide proper health education focusing on preventive aspect as well as financial support for the care. Such acts might prevent future complication thereby reducing costs of health care and eventually turns out to be reducing morbidity and mortality in the long run.