Cardiovascular medication: improving adherence.

INTRODUCTION

Adherence to medication is generally defined as the extent to which people take medications as prescribed by their healthcare providers. It can be assessed in many ways (e.g., by self-reporting, pill counting, direct observation, electronic monitoring, or by pharmacy records). This review reports effects of intervention on adherence to cardiovascular medications however adherence has been measured.

METHODS AND OUTCOMES

We conducted a systematic review and aimed to answer the following clinical question: What are the effects of interventions to improve adherence to long-term medication for cardiovascular disease in adults? We searched: Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and other important databases up to April 2010 (Clinical Evidence reviews are updated periodically; please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this review). We included harms alerts from relevant organisations such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

RESULTS

We found 39 systematic reviews, RCTs, or observational studies that met our inclusion criteria. We performed a GRADE evaluation of the quality of evidence for interventions.

CONCLUSIONS

In this systematic review we present information relating to the effectiveness and safety of the following interventions: patient health education, prescriber education, prompting mechanisms, reminder packaging (calendar [blister] packs, multi-dose pill boxes), and simplified dosing.