Dataset Information

Impact of pharmacy channel on adherence to oral oncolytics.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Oral chemotherapy is increasingly prescribed to treat cancer. Despite its benefits, concerns have been raised regarding adherence to therapy. The study objective was to compare and measure adherence, persistence, and abandonment in patients filling prescriptions in traditional retail (TR) versus specialty pharmacy (SP) channels.

Methods

Using a retrospective cohort design, we selected newly treated patients aged ?18 years with a prescription for erlotinib, capecitabine, or imatinib during 2007-2011 from a Medco population of both United States commercial and Medicare health plans. Patients were classified according to pharmacy channel providing the medication. Abandonment was defined as a reversal following initial approval of the index prescription claim with no additional paid claims for agent within 90 days of reversal. Patients were considered adherent if the proportion of days covered between the date of the first and last oral prescription was ?80%.

Results

In our retrospective cohort, 11,972 filled their prescriptions within the SP channel, and 30,394 filled their prescriptions within the TR channels, respectively. The SP channel had the highest proportion of adherent patients compared with TR (71.6% vs. 56.4%, P < .001). Abandonment of the initial prescription was low with overall rates of only 1.7%. In multivariate models controlling for demographic characteristics, index oncolytic, days of supply, and copay, SP channel (relative to TR) was significantly associated with lower rates of abandonment and increased adherence.

Conclusions

Pharmacy channel may be influential on abandonment and adherence. Lower rates of abandonment and higher rates of adherence were observed among SP patients versus TR.

SUBMITTER: Stokes M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5477418 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Impact of pharmacy channel on adherence to oral oncolytics.

Stokes Michael M Reyes Carolina C Xia Yu Y Alas Veronica V Goertz Hans-Peter HP Boulanger Luke L

BMC health services research 20170619 1

<h4>Background</h4>Oral chemotherapy is increasingly prescribed to treat cancer. Despite its benefits, concerns have been raised regarding adherence to therapy. The study objective was to compare and measure adherence, persistence, and abandonment in patients filling prescriptions in traditional retail (TR) versus specialty pharmacy (SP) channels.<h4>Methods</h4>Using a retrospective cohort design, we selected newly treated patients aged ≥18 years with a prescription for erlotinib, capecitabine, ...[more]

PMID: 28629454

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Project description:Objective:To investigate the feasibility and potential impact of a pharmacy care intervention, involving motivational interviews among patients with acute coronary syndrome, on adherence to medication and on health outcomes. Methods:This article reports a prospective, interventional, controlled feasibility/pilot study. Seventy one patients discharged from a London Heart Attack Centre following acute treatment for a coronary event were enrolled and followed up for 6?months. Thirty two pharmacies from six London boroughs were allocated into intervention or control sites. The intervention was delivered by community pharmacists face-to-face in the pharmacy, or by telephone. Consultations were delivered as part of the New Medicine Service or a Medication Usage Review. They involved a 15-20?min motivational interview aimed at improving protective cardiovascular medicine taking. Results:At 3?months, there was a statistically significant difference in adherence between the intervention group (M=7.7, SD=0.56) and the control group (M=7.0, SD=1.85), p=0.026. At 6?months, the equivalent figures were for the intervention group M=7.5, SD=1.47 and for the controls M=6.1, SD=2.09 (p=0.004). In addition, there was a statistically significant relationship between the level of adherence at 3?months and beliefs regarding medicines (p=0.028). Patients who reported better adherence expressed positive beliefs regarding the necessity of taking their medicines. However, given the small sample size, no statistically significant outcome difference in terms of recorded blood pressure and low density lipoprotein-cholesterol was observed over the 6?months of the study. Conclusions:The feasibility, acceptability and potentially positive clinical outcome of the intervention were demonstrated, long with a high level of patient acceptability. It had a significant impact on cardiovascular medicine taking adherence. But these findings must be interpreted with caution. The intervention should be tested in a larger trial to ascertain its full clinical utility. Trial registration number:ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01920009.

Project description:BackgroundDiabetes remains a growing public health threat but evidence supports the role that pharmacists can play in improving diabetes medication use and outcomes. To improve the quality of care, the Veterans Health Administration has widely adopted care models that integrate clinical pharmacists, but more data are needed to interpret the impact of these services. Our objective was to assess clinical pharmacy services' impact on outcomes and oral antidiabetic medication (OAD) use among veterans with uncontrolled diabetes in the first year of therapy.MethodsThis was a retrospective cohort analysis using the Veterans Affairs (VA) Corporate Data Warehouse to identify the first diagnosis of and initiation of OAD therapy for uncomplicated, uncontrolled diabetes (A1C > 7.0%) during 2002-2014. Receipt of clinical pharmacy services was identified using codes within VA electronic health records, and clinical values were obtained at or near the initial fill date and 365 days later. Use of OADs was assessed by proportion of days covered (PDC) for one year following the first filled prescription. Veterans having received clinical pharmacy services were matched 1:1 to those having not seen a clinical pharmacist in the first year of therapy, and generalized linear models assessed changes and differences in outcomes.ResultsThe analysis included 5749 patients in each cohort. On average, patients saw a clinical pharmacist 2.5 times throughout the first year of OAD therapy. Adherence to OAD medications was higher in veterans having seen a pharmacist (84.3% vs. 82.4%, p < 0.0001) and more such patients achieved a PDC of at least 80% (72.2% vs. 68.2%, p < 0.0001). After one year of OAD therapy, mean change in hemoglobin A1C was greater among those receiving pharmacy services (- 1.5% vs. -1.4%, p < 0.0001).ConclusionPharmacist participation in diabetes patients' primary care positively affects the multifaceted needs of patients with this condition and comorbid chronic disease.

Project description:BackgroundAdherence to antihypertensive drugs in patients with diabetes is important. To support adherence, attention should be paid to the dynamic process of implementation, persistence and reinitiation of these drugs. We assessed non-adherence, non-persistence and reinitiation patterns for antihypertensive drugs in patients on oral diabetes drugs and identified pharmacy-based predictors of these processes.MethodsWe conducted a cohort study in patients on oral diabetes drugs who initiated antihypertensive drugs between 1995-2015, as registered in the IADB.nl pharmacy database. Non-adherence was defined as a medication possession ratio < 80% and non-persistence as a gap > 180 days. We defined reinitiation as the dispensing of an antihypertensive drug within one year following discontinuation. We provide descriptive statistics for different time periods and applied logistic and Cox regressions to assess associations with sociodemographic and drug-related factors.ResultsOf 6,669 initiators, non-adherence rates in persistent patients decreased from 11.0% in the first year to 8.5% and 7.7% in the second and third years, respectively. Non-persistence rates decreased from 18.0% in the first year to 3.7% and 2.9% in the second and third years, respectively. Of the 1,201 patients who discontinued in the first year, 22.0% reinitiated treatment within one year. Non-adherence and non-persistence rates were lower in the more recent time period. Predictors of non-adherence were secondary prevention (OR: 1.45; 95% CI: 1.10-1.93) and diuretics as initial drug class (OR: 1.37; 95% CI: 1.08-1.74). Predictors of non-persistence were female gender (HR: 1.18; 95% CI: 1.05-1.32), older age (HR: 1.33; 95% CI: 1.08-1.63) and diuretics, beta-blocking agents or calcium channel blockers as initial drug class. Longer duration of persistence was a predictor of reinitiation.ConclusionsAdherence to antihypertensive drugs in patients on oral diabetes drugs has improved over time. The first year after initiation is the most crucial with regard to non-adherence and non-persistence, and the risk groups are different for both processes. Early non-persistence is a risk factor for not reinitiating treatment.

Dataset Information

Impact of pharmacy channel on adherence to oral oncolytics.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Impact of pharmacy channel on adherence to oral oncolytics.

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