TY - JOUR T1 - Adherence to disease-specific drug treatment among patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension or chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension JF - ERJ Open Research JO - erjor DO - 10.1183/23120541.00299-2020 SP - 00299-2020 AU - Barbro Kjellström AU - Anna Sandqvist AU - Clara Hjalmarsson AU - Magnus Nisell AU - Per Näsman AU - Bodil Ivarsson Y1 - 2020/01/01 UR - http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/early/2020/10/15/23120541.00299-2020.abstract N2 - Background Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) require lifelong treatment. The aim of the present study was to investigate adherence to disease specific treatment in patients with PAH or CTEPH.Methods The study comprised an adult population diagnosed with PAH (n=384) or CTEPH (n=187) alive in 2016–2017. The study utilised three registries; the Swedish PAH registry, the National Board of Health and Welfare and, Statistics Sweden. Withdrawals from pharmacies of disease-specific oral treatments were studied. Adherence was assessed as; 1) Number of days covered defined as the difference between the total number of daily dosages dispensed and the total number of days covered and 2) Manual assessment by two persons that independently reviewed each patient's prescription fill history to detect anomalies or patterns of deteriorating or improving adherence over time.Results The mean age was 61±16 years, 61% were female and mean time since diagnosis was 4.6 years. Adherence was 62% using the Number of days covered method and 66% by the Manual assessment method. Drug specific adherence varied from 91% for riociguat to 60% for sildenafil. Good adherence was associated to shorter time since diagnosis in patients with PAH and to lower number of concomitant other chronic treatments in patients with CTEPH. Age, sex, socioeconomic status, or number of PH-treatments were not associated to adherence.Conclusion Adherence to oral disease specific treatment was 60–65% and associated to time since diagnosis and number of concomitant chronic treatments. Sex, age or socioeconomic factors did not affect adherence.FootnotesThis manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the ERJ Open Research. It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJOR online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article.Conflict of interest: Dr. Kjellström has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Hjalmarsson has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Nisell has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Näsman has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Ivarsson has nothing to disclose. ER -