Medication adherence in heart failure

Abstract

Non-adherence with medical regimens in heart failure is a significant challenge and serves as a major reason that favorable outcomes associated with various therapies evaluated in clinical trials have not translated to the so-called real-world setting. Non-adherence has complex influences and is clearly associated with poorer outcomes. The approaches that are used or have been proposed to improve drug-taking behavior, such as in-hospital initiation of therapy, simplification of dosing regimens through adoption of combination and long-acting formulations, and improvements in provider-patient communication, are reviewed.

Interventions to Enhance Adherence to Medications in Patients With Heart Failure

“…Adherence to medication and other aspects of self-care for a debilitating symptomatic chronic illness such as CHF is a complex behavior with multifactorial determinants, 6,33 including a range of individual and social-environment factors. 34,35 Although earlier studies have reviewed the broader issues of adherence to health professionals' self-care recommendation in CHF, 5 this review focused on those interventions that specifically address medication adherence for 3 key reasons.…”

“…CHF medication regimens have become increasingly complex as new treatments have emerged, 6 which provides a challenge for patients with CHF to manage. Practitioners should consider that developing effective methods to increase patient adherence to existing medications with known efficacy could have far greater health benefits than providing new treatments that may not be followed.…”

“…1 Although the evidence on medication efficacy for certain subgroups of patients with CHF is clear, there are also compelling data showing that many of these patients do not take their medications as prescribed by health care providers. 5,6 This "nonadherence" to medication therefore remains a significant barrier to enhancing the effectiveness of existing treatments.…”

Polypharmacy in heart failure: A growing challenge

“…Non adherence to medication can lead to exacerbation of heart failure and is an important factor in preventable hospital admissions and increased healthcare costs (Hauptman 2008). In terms of polypharmacy it is not the number of medications taken by the average heart failure patient that has been found to impact on adherence (Shalansky, Levy 2002) but the complexity of drug regimes that require repeated daily doses and frequent dose titration (Paes et al, 1997).…”

Hjertepasienter tar ikke medisiner riktig

“…Mangelfull overholdelse av hjertesviktregimer medfører forverring av symptomer, reinnleggelser, redusert livskvalitet (2,9) og dårligere prognose (10). Denne artikkelen har som mål å gi økt forståelse for faktorer som påvirker etterlevelse i denne pasientgruppen, og disku tere tiltak som kan iverksettes for å bidra til bedre etterlevelse.…”