Table 2.
Characteristics of patients prescribed PCSK9 inhibitor
| Patient characteristics | All patients prescribed PCSK9 inhibitors (n=1269)* |
|---|---|
| Age | |
| <40 | 21 (1.7%) |
| 40-59 | 290 (23.3%) |
| 60-79 | 851 (68.5%) |
| More than 80 | 81 (6.5%) |
| Sex (% male) | 657 (52.9%) |
| Race | |
| Caucasian/White | 1131 (92.4%) |
| Black | 46 (3.8%) |
| Other | 47 (3.8%) |
| Education | |
| High school or less | 224 (18.1%) |
| At least some college | 752 (60.9%) |
| Graduate degree | 259 (21.0%) |
| Household income | |
| <$30,000 | 193 (20.2%) |
| $30,000-$69,999 | 350 (36.5%) |
| >$70,000 | 415 (43.3%) |
| Insurance type | |
| Private | 745 (59.0%) |
| Government | 462 (36.6%) |
| None | 30 (2.4%) |
| Insurance medication coverage | |
| Full | 824 (66.9%) |
| Partial | 356 (28.9%) |
| None | 51 (4.1%) |
| Clinical characteristics† | |
| HeFH only | 235 (18.5%) |
| ASCVD only | 459 (36.2%) |
| ASCVD and HeFH | 396 (31.2%) |
| Other/no response /missing | 179 (14.1%) |
| Currently taking any statin | 376 (29.8%) |
| Currently taking high-intensity statin | 190 (15.5%) |
| Not taking statin | 884 (70.2%) |
| Currently taking ezetimibe | 236 (19.3%) |
| Not taking statin | |
| Phone: Reason for not taking statin‡ | |
| Side effects | 284 (85.8%) |
| Other | 37 (11.2%) |
| Never took a statin | 10 (3.0%) |
| Email: Reason for not taking statin§ | |
| Side effects | 462 (84.3%) |
| Stopped when starting PCSK9 inhibitor | 44 (8.0%) |
| Other | 39 (7.1%) |
| Never took a statin | 3 (0.6%) |
| Prescribing doctor | |
| Cardiologist | 963 (76.3%) |
| Endocrinologist | 93 (7.4%) |
| Primary care | 163 (12.9%) |
| Other | 44 (3.5%) |
| Patient involvement in approval¶ | |
| Completing paperwork | 276 (23.3%) |
| Getting paperwork to provider | 441 (37.2%) |
| Calling insurer | 340 (28.7%) |
| None of the above | 84 (6.6%) |
| Burden of approval process# | (n=496) |
| Not at all burdensome | 126 (25.4%) |
| Somewhat burdensome | 199 (40.1%) |
| Very burdensome | 171 (34.5%) |
134 respondents were prescribed PCSK9 inhibitors but had subsequent missing data or did not know their approval status
In the phone survey, ASCVD was assessed by asking patients about a history of stroke, heart attack, coronary stent, or heart bypass. In the email survey, this was broadened to include coronary artery disease”, angina, abdominal aortic aneurysm, and transient ischemic attacks.
Phone survey only
Email survey only
Patient involvement options are not mutually exclusive.
The question of if patients stopped statin after initiating PCSK9 inhibitors was not asked on phone survey to prevent potentially prompting patients to stop therapy inappropriately after seeing high rates of this on the first email survey.
ASCVD, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease; HeFH, heterozygous familial hyperlipidemia; PCSK9, proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 inhibitors