Patient‐related characteristics associated with non‐persistence with statin therapy in elderly patients following an ischemic stroke

Purpose This study was aimed at evaluating the extent of non‐persistence with statin therapy in elderly patients after an ischemic stroke and identifying patient‐related characteristics that are risk factors for non‐persistence. Methods The evaluable study cohort (n = 2748) was derived from the database of the largest health insurance provider in the Slovak Republic. Patients aged ≥65 years who were initiated on statin therapy following the diagnosis of an ischemic stroke during one full year (1 January 2010 to 31 December 2010) constituted this cohort. Each patient was followed for a period of 3 years from the date of the first statin prescription. Patients with a continuous treatment gap of 6 months without statin prescription were designated as non‐persistent. The Cox proportional hazard model was applied to determine patient‐associated characteristics that influenced the likelihood of non‐persistence. Results During the 3‐year follow‐up period, 39.7% of patients in the study cohort became non‐persistent. Factors associated with decreased probability of a patient becoming non‐persistent were age ≥75 years (hazard ratio (HR) 0.75), polypharmacy (concurrent use of ≥6 drugs) (HR 0.79), diabetes mellitus (HR 0.80), dementia (HR 0.81) and hypercholesterolemia (HR 0.50). On the other hand, the presence of anxiety disorders (HR 1.33) predicted an increased likelihood of a patient being non‐persistent. Conclusions Our findings suggest that patients aged ≥75 years or those with the presence of diabetes mellitus, dementia, hypercholesterolemia or polypharmacy were likely to be persistent with statin therapy, whereas those with anxiety disorders may need greater assistance with persistence of statin therapy. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.