Medication Adherence in Patients with Cardiovascular Disease: Data from a Krasnodar Territorial Outpatient Clinic
Study Objective: To study gender- and age-related aspects of adherence to medication therapy given as a method of medical rehabilitation for patients receiving primary health care in a Krasnodar territorial outpatient clinic in 2016. Study Design: This was a comparative prospective study. Materials and Methods: The authors studied gender- and age-related medication adherence in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD). These patients had been evaluated as being in health group III, based on routine examination and observation in 2015. One hundred and seventy-eight patients (mean age 62.5 ± 11.6) were examined in the study, including 44 (24.7%) men and 134 (75.3%) women. Compliance was assessed by the Morisky-Green test. Study Results: More than half of the respondents (53.9%) were non-adherent to their drug regimens, 25.9% were adherent, and 20.2% were insufficiently adherent. No statistically significant correlation was observed between adherence and the number of medications taken. The mean Morisky-Green test score was 2.4. There were no statistically significant gender differences for any answers on this medication compliance questionnaire. About half the patients (48.9%) forget to take their medications, 36.5% do not take their medications regularly when they feel well, and 47.2% are careless about when they take their medications. Patients aged 18 to 38 forgot significantly more often to take their medications (t = -2.039; p = 0.043). Seventy-three percent of the patients answered in the affirmative to the question about modifying risk factors (RF) for CVD: 28.5% of them followed dietary recommendations, 3.9% stopped smoking, 43.9% increased physical activity, and 23.7% followed recommendations not explicitly given for RF modification and lacked a full understanding of the term "cardiovascular RF". Conclusion: Our study showed that health group III patients with CVD are insufficiently adherent to their medical regimens and recommendations for modifying cardiovascular RF. The fact that patients aged 18 to 38 had the lowest medical adherence is indirect evidence of less active work with this group of patients on prevention.