Adherence Rates in Older Adults With Diabetes, Hypertension, Hyperlipidemia

Older adults were adherent to triple therapy for diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia at a rate of 68.05%, according to findings published in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association.

“Diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia have been identified as common modifiable risk factors of cardiovascular disease, frequently occurring together, especially among the elderly,” authors wrote. “Medication adherence to concomitant triple therapy is of vital importance among this population.”

Using the Texas Medicare Advantage dataset, researchers evaluated adherence to oral antidiabetics, RAS antagonists, and statins among a cohort of 7847 older patients. Participants were only included if they had “an overlap of 30 days of triple therapy and a second prescription of each component of triple therapy within the identification period.”

Adherence was determined using the proportion of days covered during one year of follow-up. Data indicated:

• 68.05% of patients were adherent to triple therapy;
• 21.43% of patients were adherent to double therapy; and
• 10.51% of patients were adherent to monotherapy/none.

Women were more likely than men to be nonadherent to triple therapy. Participants were more likely to be adherent to all three treatments with a refill of 90 days or more and prevalent use of triple therapy.

Additionally, adherence to only monotherapy or no therapy was linked to older age and greater number of other medications.

Reference:
Paranjpe R, Chen H, Johnson ML, Birtcher K, Serna O, Abughosh S. Adherence to concomitant diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia treatments among elderly patients. J Am Pharm Assoc. Published online March 16, 2022. doi:10.1016/j.japh.2022.03.011