Table 1. Adherence Characteristics of Study Population.
| Characteristic | Adherence Group1,2 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
| |||
| Primary Non-Adherence (n=1,142) | Early Non-Persistence (n=3,356) | Ongoing Dispensing (n=10,919) | |
| Number (%) of Patients by Therapeutic Class | |||
| Diabetes (n = 1,788) | 172 (10) | 267 (15) | 1,349 (75) |
| Hypertension (n = 6,393) | 331 (5) | 1,672 (26) | 4,390 (69) |
| Hyperlipidemia (n = 5,848) | 582 (10) | 1,241 (21) | 4,025 (69) |
| Multiple drugs (n = 1,388) | 57 (4) | 176 (13) | 1,155 (83) |
| Proportion of Days Covered (PDC): 180 days 3 | |||
| mean (sd) | |||
| median (5%,95%) | |||
| Diabetes | 0.14 (0.24) 0.00 (0.00, 0.68) |
0.29 (0.12) 0.33 (0.17, 0.50) |
0.86 (0.19) 0.94 (0.43, 1.00) |
| Hypertension | 0.13 (0.22) 0.00 (0.00, 0.63) |
0.28 (0.11) 0.33 (0.17, 0.50) |
0.84 (0.20) 0.93 (0.33, 1.00) |
| Hyperlipidemia | 0.25 (0.26) 0.17 (0.00, 0.74) |
0.29 (0.11) 0.33 (0.17, 0.50) |
0.84 (0.18) 0.92 (0.49, 1.00) |
| Multiple drugs | 0.18 (0.22) 0.02 (0.00, 0.61) |
0.29 (0.12) 0.33 (0.17, 0.50) |
0.83 (0.20) 0.92 (0.34, 1.00) |
| PDC > 80% by Therapeutic Class: 180 days, n (%) | |||
| Diabetes | 0 (0) | 1 (0) | 983 (73) |
| Hypertension | 2 (1) | 8 (0) | 2,964 (68) |
| Hyperlipidemia | 12 (2) | 0 (0) | 2,751 (68) |
| Multiple drugs | 0 (0) | 2 (1) | 764 (66) |
For persons with newly-initiated drugs from more than one therapeutic class, the most adherent group was assigned (e.g., if they had ongoing dispensings for any of the newly-prescribed drugs, they were placed in the Ongoing group).
Variables compared across columns using Chi-square, Wilcoxon rank sum, or Kruskal-Wallis test. P-values for all <0.001.
PDC is not 0 for the primary non-adherence group because a few patients in this group eventually filled the prescription at some time after the 30 day period that was used to define primary non-adherence. Between days 31 and 60, 14 patients prescribed an antidiabetic, 45 patients prescribed an antihypertensive, 137 patients prescribed an antihyperlipidemic, and 6 patients prescribed drugs from multiple classes filled the prescription.