Over 26% of Medicare part D enrollees aged 65 years and over are not taking their antihypertensive drugs properly, according to a report published online Sept. 13 in MMWR.
An analysis of 2014 data showed that 4.9 million hypertensive Medicare patients were taking an incorrect dose of their medication or were not taking it at all, reported Matthew Ritchey, DPT of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s division for heart disease and stroke prevention, and his associates (MMWR. 2016 Sep 13:65).
Nonadherence rates varied considerably by race and ethnicity, with American Indians/Alaska Natives the highest at 39%, followed by blacks at 36%, Hispanics at 34%, Asian/Pacific Islanders at 26%, and white non-Hispanics at 24%, the investigators noted.
The analysis included 18.5 million part D beneficiaries who filled two or more antihypertensive prescriptions in the same therapeutic class on different dates within a period of more than 90 days in 2014.