Effect of a Family Pharmacist System on Medication Adherence of Patients with Dyslipidemia during a COVID-19 Epidemic

Abstract

The pharmacy pharmacist's function as a family pharmacist is expected to improve adherence to medication in patients suffering from chronic diseases, including dyslipidemia. This is true even in infectious disease epidemics. In this study, using anonymously processed receipt data from 700 insurance pharmacies in our group, we evaluated medication adherence in patients taking statin drugs before, during the first and second years of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic in terms of medication persistence and medication possession, and compared the results between the family pharmacist group (FP group) and non-family pharmacist group (NoFP group). The odds ratios of good medication adherence (medication persistence and medication possession) rates for the FP group relative to the NoFP group were 1.446 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.210-1.727] in the pre-epidemic period, 1.428 (1.192-1.710) in the first year of the epidemic, and 1.270 (1.113-1.450) in the second year of the epidemic. The FP group was significantly higher in all time periods. Therefore, it is suggested that the family pharmacist function improves adherence to statins not only before but also during the COVID-19 epidemic.