Community pharmacist intervention to optimize statin adherence in diabetes care: The GuIDE-S study

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Endocrinology
• Pharmacology

Background:

• Statin therapy is crucial for reducing cardiovascular events in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients.
• Suboptimal medication adherence remains a significant challenge in managing T2D.
• Community pharmacist interventions are being explored to improve adherence.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the effectiveness of a community pharmacist-led intervention on statin adherence among new users with type 2 diabetes.
• To evaluate the impact of proactive identification, prescription facilitation, and patient education on medication adherence.

Main Methods:

• A quasi-experimental study design was employed.
• Community pharmacy staff identified T2D patients not on statins, facilitating prescription and providing education.
• Statin adherence was measured using the proportion of days covered (PDC) over 12 months, with statistical analysis using linear and logistic regression.

Main Results:

• The intervention group showed a 3.1% higher average PDC compared to the control group, though this was not statistically significant.
• Patients in the intervention group were 21.2% more likely to achieve a PDC of 80% or higher.
• While trends favored the intervention, statistical significance was not reached for key adherence metrics.

Conclusions:

• The community pharmacist intervention demonstrated a positive trend towards improved statin adherence in patients with type 2 diabetes.
• Despite encouraging results, the observed differences in adherence did not reach statistical significance.
• Further research may be needed to optimize interventions for significant improvements in statin adherence in this population.