Prescription Patterns for Pacific Patients with Poor Cardiovascular Disease Medication Supply

Introduction: The Caring Does Matter (CDM) programme aims to improve medication adherence amongst Pacific patients with high cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. This paper examines CDM baseline (preintervention) data for patterns of poor medication adherence. Methods: Electronic medical records from 14 general practices are analysed with respect to prescribing patterns for antihypertensive, cholesterol lowering and oral antidiabetic medications. Patients who recently started treatment and had <80% medication possession in the latest 15 months are grouped into three categories: (1) just one prescription; (2) initial persistence (≤30 day lapse between the first and second prescriptions; and (3) other (i.e. multiple lapses, including a lapse immediately after the first prescription). Results: Over half of patients recently started on CVD-related medication are nonadherent in the latest 15 months; and the rate is higher than in those patients having started the medications earlier. A lapse after the first prescription is associated with significantly increased odds of non-adherence. Nonadherence is not dominated by a single prescription pattern category. Discussion: General practices usually get return visits from patients developing a pattern of poor medication possession, providing a series of signals of non-adherence risk, and offering ample opportunity for adherence promotion intervention. . Copyright © 2014, Australian Computer Society, Inc. This paper appeared at the Australasian Workshop on Health Informatics and Knowledge Management (HIKM 2014), Auckland, New Zealand. Conferences in Research and Practice in Information Technology (CRPIT), Vol. 153. J. Warren and K. Gray, Eds. Reproduction for academic, not-for-profit purposes permitted provided this text is included.