Table 3. Patient attitudes and experiences toward hypercholesterolemia management.
| Continue existing treatment (n = 270) | Modify existing treatment (n = 150) | p value | |
| Patient awareness | |||
| Heard or has been told about LDL-C | < 0.01 | ||
| Yes | 88 (33) | 77 (51) | |
| No | 106 (39) | 61 (41) | |
| Cannot remember | 76 (28) | 12 (8) | |
| Heard or has been told about HDL-C | < 0.01 | ||
| Yes | 87 (33) | 79 (53) | |
| No | 106 (40) | 59 (39) | |
| Cannot remember | 75 (28) | 12 (8) | |
| Has been informed about the cholesterol level | 0.07 | ||
| Yes | 154 (57) | 99 (66) | |
| No | 116 (43) | 51 (34) | |
| Has been given a target cholesterol level | < 0.01 | ||
| Yes | 107 (56) | 82 (79) | |
| No | 83 (44) | 22 (21) | |
| Current situation according to the patient | < 0.01 | ||
| Not been given a cholesterol target | 37 (16) | 32 (22) | |
| Not reach the cholesterol target | 14 (6) | 41 (28) | |
| Unsure whether reaching the cholesterol target | 147 (63) | 41 (28) | |
| Reached the cholesterol target | 35 (15) | 32 (22) | |
| Patient compliance | |||
| Frequency the patient was seen for checkup of cholesterol level | 0.01 | ||
| More frequently than once every 3 months | 67 (26) | 34 (25) | |
| Every 3 months | 163 (63) | 71 (52) | |
| Every 6 to 12 months | 31 (12) | 32 (23) | |
| Frequency of lipid-lowering medications missed | < 0.01 | ||
| More than once a week | 18 (12) | 24 (29) | |
| Once a week or less | 126 (88) | 59 (71) | |
| Frequency that patient thought that missing medications would not affect the cholesterol level | 0.22 | ||
| More than once a week | 64 (29) | 25 (23) | |
| Once a week or less | 156 (71) | 85 (77) | |
| Patient experience | |||
| Measures taken by the doctor when the patient was first diagnosed | 0.64 | ||
| Only advised to change lifestyle | 21 (8) | 16 (11) | |
| Only prescribed medications | 43 (16) | 21 (14) | |
| Both advised lifestyle changes and prescribed medications | 201 (76) | 111 (75) | |
| Neither advised lifestyle changes nor prescribed medications | 1 (< 1) | 0 (0) | |
| Changes of lipid-lowering medications since first prescribed | 0.50 | ||
| Still on the same tablet | 163 (70) | 95 (64) | |
| Still on the same tablet but the dose has been increased | 4 (2) | 3 (2) | |
| Have changed tablets | 66 (28) | 50 (34) |
* Data are in numbers (%).
HDL-C, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol; LDL-C, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol.