Medication regimen complexity of coronary artery disease patients

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine the factors associated with the high complexity of medication regimen in patients with coronary artery disease. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out in a multiprofessional cardiology outpatient clinic, in the Secondary Care of the Unified Health System, where sociodemographic (age, sex, and education), clinical (number of health conditions, cardiovascular diagnoses, and comorbidities) and pharmacotherapeutic (adherence, polypharmacy, and cardiovascular polypharmacy) characteristics were collected. These were related to complexity of medication regimen, measured through the medication regimen complexity index. The classification of high complexity of medication regimen was carried out using standardization for the older adults and stratification for adult patients, as suggested in the literature. RESULTS: The total complexity medication regimen of 148 patients had a median of 17.0 (interquartile range of 10.5). In the univariate analysis, the factors associated with high complexity were heart failure, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, five or more diseases, and non-adherence to treatment. In the final model, after logistic regression, there was a statistically significant association (p<0.05) with the variables diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and non-adherence. CONCLUSION: The high complexity of medication regimen in patients with coronary artery disease was associated with the presence of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and reports of non-adherence to treatment.