Pharmacy Daily | 1 in 5 refuse statins, more so women

THE Heart Foundation is asking Australians with high cholesterol not to refuse to take life-saving statin medication after a new international study found that one in five people do not take their prescribed statins.

The US-based study published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association reviewed the medical data of millions of US citizens using artificial intelligence and natural language processing technology to find that one in five Americans refused to accept statin therapy despite being at high risk of developing heart disease.

The study also found that women were more likely than men to refuse to take statins when prescribed, and also less likely than men to achieve good cholesterol control within 12 months from diagnosis.

This study demonstrates that patients are active agents in their care, and their preferences and priorities should be carefully taken into account when making treatment recommendations.

The Heart Foundation said the study was the first of its type and more work would need to be done to understand what was causing the reluctance.

But the results are cause for enough concern to warn Australians to continue taking their statins, especially women for whom heart health outcomes were often worse than men.

"Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death among Australian women," said Natalie Raffoul, Healthcare Programs Manager at the Heart Foundation.

"High cholesterol impacts 6.5 million Australians - including 3.6 million Australian women - and is well recognised as a leading risk factor for heart attacks in the country.

"Statin therapy is the gold-standard, first-line, cholesterol lowering medication prescribed for high-risk individuals to help reduce their chances of having a heart attack or stroke.

"If you are prescribed statins by your GP, it is because you are at high risk of a heart attack or stroke.

"It's crucial that you consider taking these medicines, which are commonly regarded as having been critical to the reduction in cardiovascular death in Australia over the last 50 years."

Raffoul said the study's findings were in line with existing evidence that patient adherence to statin therapy was poor.

"This new study suggests that even before the point of being prescribed a medication, acceptance of statin therapy is poor too," she explained.

"We have more work to do to understand what is causing this reluctance so that we can improve the uptake of statins among those who are prescribed them."

In Nov 2022, the Heart Foundation released the Cholesterol Roadblocks and Solutions report, developed by the foundation in collaboration with the World Heart Federation and a roundtable of Australian healthcare experts.

The report makes a number of important recommendations that will require the combined efforts of patients, GPs, the cardiovascular sector and Federal and State/Territory Governments to implement over the coming years.