Heart failure is a chronic condition that increases the risk for death and disability. Beta blockers and ACE inhibitors have become standard treatments in heart failure because clinical trials have demonstrated their beneficial effect on mortality and morbidity in these patients. As not much is known about adherence to these medications, the main objectives of this project were to determine long term adherence to ACE inhibitors and beta blockers and determine how various degrees of adherence to a beta blocker can affect major health outcomes in patients with heart failure.<p> Data was obtained from Saskatchewan health from January 1, 1994 to December 31, 2003 for all heart failure patients from their first hospitalization for heart failure. Adherence was calculated using the fill frequency measure of adherence, and all survival analyses were completed using the Cox proportional hazards model.<p>Although 14, 000 patients were admitted to hospital for a first admission for heart failure, only 1143 subjects started a beta blocker and 5084 subjects started an ACE inhibitor within 3 months of the index hospitalization. Within the first year, adherence was excellent for both beta blockers (80.8 percent) and ACE inhibitors (82.5 percent). The proportion of patients remaining adherent slowly decreased to reach approximately 60 percent, for both medication classes, after 4 years. There was no significant difference in all-cause mortality between patients with high adherence and low adherence, but there appeared to be a trend towards decreased survival time in those remaining adherent throughout the study period [HR = 1.18 (95% CI: 0.98 to 1.43; p=0.07)].<p>Since the overall rate of adherence to beta blockers was excellent in most patients during the first year, it is possible that non-adherence is not responsible for a significant burden of mortality in Saskatchewan heart failure patients, and perhaps and the focus of quality improvement should be optimal prescribing of evidence-based therapies, and continued adherence over time.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:SSU.etd-04012008-151811 |
| Date | 02 April 2008 |
| Creators | Lamb, Darcy Alan |
| Contributors | Remillard, Alfred J. (Fred), Paus-Jenssen, Anne M., Janzen, Bonnie, Dobson, Roy T., Blackburn, David F., Taylor, Jeff G. |
| Publisher | University of Saskatchewan |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://library.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-04012008-151811/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Saskatchewan or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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