Abstract

Background: Adherence to oral anticoagulant (OAC) agents is important for patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) to prevent potentially severe adverse events. Objectives: To compare real-world adherence rates for rivaroxaban vs other oral anticoagulant agents (apixaban, dabigatran, and warfarin) among patients with NVAF using claims-based data. Methods: Healthcare claims from the IMS Health Real-World Data Adjudicated Claims database (01/2011-06/2015) were used to assess 6 month adherence rates defined as the percentage of patients with proportion of days covered (PDC) ≥0.8 and ≥0.9. Patients were included if they had ≥2 dispensings of rivaroxaban, apixaban, dabigatran, or warfarin at least 180 days apart (the first was termed as the index date), had > 60 days of supply, had ≥ 6 months of pre-index eligibility, had ≥ 1 AF diagnosis pre-index or at index date, and without valvular involvement. A logistic regression model was used to evaluate adherence to therapy adjusting for sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, insurance type, index month and year, previous OAC use, and mental-health risk factors for non-adherence (e.g., mental disorders, bipolar). Results: A total of 13,645 rivaroxaban, 6,304 apixaban, 3,360 dabigatran, and 13,366 warfarin patients were identified. A significantly higher proportion of rivaroxaban users were adherent to therapy (PDC ≥ 0.8 at 6 months vs apixaban, dabigatran, and warfarin users; Table). After adjustment, the proportion of patients adherent to therapy remained significantly higher for rivaroxaban users vs apixaban (absolute difference [AD]: 5.8%), dabigatran (AD: 9.5%), and warfarin users (AD: 13.6%; all P<0.001; Table). More pronounced differences were found with a PDC ≥0.9 (Table). Conclusion: Among NVAF patients, rivaroxaban was associated with significantly higher adherence rates relative to other OACs, whether using a PDC of ≥0.8 or ≥0.9, which could translate into improved patient outcomes and lower healthcare costs.

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