A nationwide study of compliance of venoactive drugs in chronic venous disease patients.

PURPOSE

Venoactive drugs are widely used to improve the symptoms and signs of chronic venous disease. This study aimed to analyze the rate of adverse events after venoactive drug prescription and subsequent compliance and switching rates.

METHODS

Using the National Health Insurance Service database, individuals with at least one chronic venous disease code between January 2009 and December 2019 were identified, and 30% (2,216,780 individuals) of these were sampled. Finally, 1,551,212 patients were included, and we analyzed adverse events, compliance, and switching rates with 8 venoactive drugs, including extract, naftazone, micronized purified flavonoid fraction, leaf extract, diosmin, diobsilate calcium, bilberry fruit dried extract, and sulodexide.

RESULTS

The most commonly prescribed venoactive drug was extract (72.2%), followed by sulodexide (9.3%), and leaf dry extract (8.2%). Adverse event rates were significantly lower in the naftazone and diosmin groups (P = 0.001 and P = 0.002, respectively) and significantly higher in the leaf dry extract group (P = 0.009). Drug adherence to sulodexide was the highest throughout the study period, followed by billberry extract and dobesilate (all P < 0.001). For most drugs, the drug switching rate was low (<5.0%).

CONCLUSION

extract was the most commonly prescribed venoactive drug in Korea, and drug adherence to sulodexide was the highest among all venoactive drugs. The adverse event rates were significantly lower in the naftazone and diosmin groups.