Table 3.

Possible causes of non-adherence to the guidelines evaluated and transferral for analysis

Patient answer	Transferred to	Physician answer	Transferred to
I do not know	I do not know	I do not know	Falsely not indicated GP
I do not need it	I do not need it	Not indicated
I do not want it	I do not want it	Noncompliance	Noncompliance
		Avoidance of polypharmacy	Avoidance of polypharmacy
		Specialist did not prescribe it	Falsely not indicated s/h*
I do not take it any more	Adverse drug event	Contraindication	Contraindication
	Falsely discontinued†	Patient does not take it anymore	Adverse drug event
			Falsely discontinued†
	(or one of the above)		(or one of the above)
Other	Allocation to one of the above	Other	Allocation to one of the above

* Falsely not indicated specialist / hospital (when a certain therapy was not initiated or recommended by specialists or physicians in the hospital, and the GP adhered to this recommendation even though in fact there was an indication for the drug).

^† Defined as a stop of treatment triggered by the physician despite guidelines recommending a continuation of the therapy (e.g. discontinuation of statin therapy after reaching target values for LDL-cholesterol which then rose above target again).