Ankara Medical Journal (Dec 2020)

Evaluation of The Association of Medication Adherence With Polypharmacy and Multimorbidity in Patients With Coronary Artery Disease

  • Sercan Bulut,
  • Didem Kafadar,
  • Elvan Yakupoğlu,
  • Ertuğrul Okuyan

DOI
https://doi.org/10.5505/amj.2020.67044
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 20, no. 4
pp. 777 – 789

Abstract

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INTRODUCTION: Patients diagnosed with coronary artery disease (CAD) often have comorbidities and many drugs are used together in treatment, so medication adherence becomes important in the management of the disease. Non-adherence to treatment may be caused by failure to comply with the dosage and hours of use of the medications. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of polypharmacy and multimorbidity with medication adherence in patients with CAD. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted with patients≥ 40 years of age who were diagnosed with CAD and admitted to the outpatient clinics. A questionnaire prepared by the researchers about sociodemographic characteristics, history of the disease, and medications that were used, during face-to-face interviews. Daily medications were evaluated as <4, 4-6, and ≥7 medications. Data were evaluated by descriptive and analytical statistics. RESULTS: A total of 144 patients with CAD were included in the study and 74 of them were adherent to medications. The mean age of 70 nonadherent patients was lower than the adherent patients(p=0.001) but there was no difference according to gender and marital status. Hypertensive patients were more adherent to their medications(p=0.032). In patients adherent to medications, we observed that the presence of daily≥7 medications, the duration of medications, and the number of hospitalizations were higher (p=0.034; p=0.005; p=0.001; respectively). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Medication adherence in patients with CAD was affected by the duration of medications, number of daily medications, number of hospitalizations, age, and comorbidities. Adherence decreased as the number of daily medications decreased which we think may be associated with inadequate awareness about CAD and that it is necessary to investigate medication adherence in daily practice in patients with CAD.

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