Atrial fibrillation patients' experiences and perspectives of anticoagulation therapy changes.

BACKGROUND

Atrial fibrillation (AF) patients' experiences with changes in their oral anticoagulant (OAC) therapy are understudied.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study was to qualitatively describe AF patients' experiences and perspectives of changes made to their OAC therapy (switches or discontinuations).

METHODS

A thematic analysis was performed on systematically-collected qualitative data from AF patients who experienced a therapy change (switching or discontinuing an OAC) as part of their participation in a large 2-year prospective observational study.

RESULTS

A total of 56 participants met the inclusion criteria. Six themes emerged from the data: 1. reasons for switch or discontinuation of therapy, 2. attitudes towards changes in therapy attributes, 3. challenges with taking medications after therapy change, 4. relief from perceived burden of medication after discontinuation, 5. patients' limited involvement in decision-making, and 6. inadequate education and follow up. Patients were found to request changes in therapy based on their subjective experience with it (rather than clinically justified reasons). They were found to have limited knowledge about their medications, differing reactions to changes in their therapy attributes after a switch, an overall negative attitude towards taking medications, adherence challenges after switching from once daily to twice daily medication, feelings of being excluded from the decision-making process about their therapy changes and feelings of being unsupported after these changes.

CONCLUSIONS

There are clear opportunities to improve patients' experiences with OAC therapy changes through improved shared decision-making and patient education/counselling.