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February 18, 2015
Survey: A Third Would Die Younger to Avoid a Daily Cardiovascular Pill

San Francisco—Here’s how challenging improving medication adherence can be with some patients: One in three respondents to a survey said they would take the risk of living a shorter life rather than having to take a daily pill to prevent cardiovascular disease.

For the report, published recently in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, researchers at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill conducted an Internet survey of 1,000 people averaging age 50 years. Participants were hypothetically asked how much time they were willing to give up at the end of their lives to avoid taking daily medication.

In addition, they were also asked the amount of money they would pay and the hypothetical risk of death they were willing to accept to avoid taking medications to prevent cardiovascular disease.

Respondents were 59% female and 63% Caucasian, with about two-thirds having college degrees and 51% with incomes between $25,000 and $75,000.

Results included that:

• More than 8% of participants were willing to trade as much as 2 years of life to avoid taking daily medication for cardiovascular disease; with about 21% saying they would trade between 1 week and a year of their lives.
• About 70% said, however, they wouldn't trade any weeks of their lives to avoid taking a CVD pill daily.
• Another 13% of respondents said they would accept minimal risk of death to avoid taking a pill daily, while 9% said they'd risk a 10% percent chance. On the other hand, 62% of the participants indicated they were unwilling to gamble any risk of immediate death.
• With about 21% saying they would pay $1,000 or more to avoid taking a pill each day for the rest of their lives, another 43% said they wouldn't pay any amount.

“What we were really trying to measure is how much the act of taking a pill—obtaining it, remembering to take it and actually taking it—interferes with one's quality of life,” said lead author Robert Hutchins, MD, MPH, lead author and resident physician in UCSF’s Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine. “Even ignoring the side-effects of pills, the act of having to take a daily pill can have a large effect on an individual's quality of life.”

Although the survey asked participants to disregard costs or any potential side effects, researchers said they weren’t certain that those issues didn’t affect responses.

“It is important to note that our survey only measured individuals’ preferences at one point in time,” Hutchins said. “However, the fact that we did not see large differences gives us confidence that this effect is probably not large.”

 


U.S. Pharmacist Social Connect