RISK DRIVERS FOR NON-ADHERENCE IN PATIENTS TREATED FOR HYPERTENSION

Abstract

Objective: Adherence to treatment remains an unmet need in hypertension with important clinical and financial consequences for patients, HCPs, and health systems. The objective of this study is to identify the behaviors of patients treated for hypertension, and specially the drivers of risk of non-adherence across 3 European countries: UK, Spain, and France. Design and method: Two questionaries were utilized for data collection: a sociodemographic and medical patient questionnaire and the SPUR questionnaire, a validated Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement tool developed by Observia. The questionnaires were taken by 122 patients with hypertension who were recruited through patient panels on random basis to avoid selection bias. Results: The recruited patient population presented following characteristics: mean age 57 years, 60% male, with the most common comorbidities being diabetes (40% of patients), dyslipidemia (33%), and depression (25%). The transversal analysis in three countries showed the most important behavioral drivers of non-adherence: - Time (score∗: 53-66) - patients underestimating future benefits of the treatment over the burden of taking it today. - Treatment risks (score∗: 44-45) – patients are concerned about potential side effects of the treatment. - Societal (score∗: 40-44) - patients worry about the impact that hypertension has on their social life (i.e., at work, social activities, interaction with acquaintances). The next three drivers for the RNA were the underestimation by the patient of the disease gravity, financial difficulties, and family life (immediate driver). This was common for all the countries of the study. Conclusions: The results provide insights on the main behavioral drivers of non-adherence to hypertension treatment. These results should be confirmed in a larger population to be used as the basis for developing patient engagement programs to increase adherence. These should be co-constructed with HCPs and patients themselves to efficiently target identified main drivers of non-adherence in hypertension. ∗The drivers of risk of non-adherence are scored using Observia's proprietary SPUR algorithm, more information can be found in publications on SPUR.