To evaluate the impact of health professionals’ intervention on adherence to statins, the influence on total cholesterol levels, and lifestyle patterns in patients with hypercholesterolemia and analyze the differences according to the center of recruitment.
Forty‐six community pharmacies and 50 primary care centers of Spain.
Randomized controlled trial design (n = 746). Patients were assigned into adherent () or nonadherent group depending on their initial adherence to statins. Nonadherent patients were randomly assigned to intervention () or nonintervention () group. Patients enrolled in the group received an intervention depending on the cause of nonadherence. Patients in the and groups received usual care. Intention‐to‐treat () analysis was performed with multiple imputation to replace the missing data.
Adherence, total cholesterol levels, and lifestyle behaviors.
The odds of becoming adherent during the 6 months was higher in the group compared to the group ( = 1,49; 95% : 1.30‐1.76; < 0.001), especially in the community pharmacy group ( = 2.34; 95% : 1.81‐3.03; < 0.001). Adherent patients showed lower values of total cholesterol compared with nonadherent patients at baseline (: 200.3 mg/dL vs : 216.7 mg/dL; < 0.001) and at the endpoint (: 197.3 mg/dL vs : 212.2 mg/; < 0.001). More patients enrolled in the group practices exercise at the end of the study (: +26.6 percent; = 0.002), and a greater number of patients followed a diet to treat hypercholesterolemia (+30.2 percent; < 0.001).
The intervention performed by health professionals, especially by community pharmacists, improved adherence to statins by hypercholesterolemic patients, and this improvement in adherence was accompanied by a reduction in total cholesterol levels and a healthier lifestyle.
