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Abstract
Objectives The objective was to explore the differences in medication use pattern of lipid-lowering drug (LLD) and antiplatelet agents among post-percutaneous coronary intervention patients with acute coronary syndrome aged <65 in Hong Kong (HK) and the USA.
Design Retrospective study.
Setting This study used deidentified claims data from Clinformatics Data Mart database (OptumInsight, Eden Prairie, Minnesota, USA) and electronic health records from HK Hospital Authority Clinical Data Analysis and Reporting System database.
Participants We used 1 year prescription records of LLDs and antiplatelet agents among 1013 USA patients and 270 HK Chinese patients in 2011–2013.
Primary and secondary outcome measures Continuity was investigated on the assumption that one defined daily dose represented 1 day treatment. Medication possession ratio method was used to evaluate the adherence. Multivariate-adjusted logistic regressions were constructed to compare the good continuity and adherence levels in the merged database with the cutoffs set at 80%, and Cox proportional hazard models were built using the time to discontinuation as the dependent variable, to assess the persistence level.
Results HK Chinese patients were less adherent (67.41% vs 84.60%, adjusted odds ratio (AOR) for Americans over Chinese=2.23 (95% CI=1.60 to 3.12), p<0.001) to antiplatelet agents compared with American patients but better adherent to statins (90.00% vs 78.18%, AOR=0.37 (0.23 to 0.58), p<0.001). The discontinuation with statins was more common in American patients (13.33% vs 34.25%, adjusted hazard ratio (AHR)=2.95 (2.05 to 4.24), p<0.001). Low-to-moderate potency statins and clopidogrel were favoured by our HK local physicians, while American patients received higher doses of statins and prasugrel.
Conclusions We seemed to find HK physicians tended to prescribe cheaper and lower doses of statins and antiplatelet agents when compared with the privately insured patients in the USA, though the adherence and persistence levels of HK patients with statins were relatively good.
- lipid-lowering
- antiplatelet
- drug utilisation
- continuity
- compliance
- adherence
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Footnotes
Contributors YW and VWYL conceived and designed this study. YW and JW collected the data. YW analysed the data and drafted the paper. MBN, BPY, JW, BT and VWYL revised the paper. VWYL and MBN led and supervised this study. All authors read and approved the final paper and contributed substantially to the project.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Ethics approval The study was approved by the Joint Clinical Research Ethics Committee of The Chinese University of Hong Kong and New Territories East Cluster (CUHK-NTEC), and the protocol was compliant to the Declaration of Helsinki.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data sharing statement Due to ethical concerns, supporting data cannot be made openly available.
Patient consent for publication Not required.