Non-adherence to cardiovascular medications.

Abstract

Despite evidence-based interventions, coronary heart disease (CHD) remains a leading cause of global mortality. As therapies advance, patient non-adherence to established treatments is well recognized. Non-adherence is a powerful confounder of evidence-based practice and can affect daily patient management, resulting in inappropriate therapeutic escalation with greater costs and potential for harm. Moreover, it increases risk for adverse cardiac events, including mortality. Yet, non-adherence is complex, remains difficult to define, and provider ability to identify its presence accurately remains limited. Improved screening tools are needed to detect at-risk patients, enabling appropriate targeting of interventions. Given the rapidly expanding global population with CHD and emerging clinical and cost-benefits of adherence, addressing non-adherence to prescribed therapies is a top priority.