Factors related to patient adherence to the use of new oral anticoagulants.
Paula Rocco Gomes Lima, Gisele Mara Silva Gonçalves, Roberta Cunha Matheus Rodrigues and 1 others
PMID 34932689WHAT IT FOUND
Most patients taking new oral anticoagulants reported good adherence.
Longer use, working, lower income, and private clinic care were linked with lower self-reported adherence.
Key findings
01The 120 patients had a mean adherence score of 5.7 on a 1 to 6 scale, and 117 were classified as adherent.
02Self-reported adherence became lower as the time a patient had been using a new oral anticoagulant increased.
03Patients who were not working and those with higher family income reported better adherence, while private clinic follow-up was linked with lower adherence.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Adherence was self-reported, so social desirability may have made the scores look better than actual taking of the drug. The study did not use laboratory tests that can directly measure NOAC exposure, so it could not confirm whether patients were actually taking the anticoagulant. The design was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that any factor caused better or worse adherence. The sample was a convenience sample from one city and two outpatient settings, so it may not represent all patients using NOAC in Brazil. Some public clinic patients were also research participants, received the drug free, and had closer support from research staff, which may have raised their adherence. Telephone data collection may have made some patients reluctant to answer sociodemographic questions. The MAT scale showed acceptable but modest internal consistency, with a Cronbach alpha of 0.62.
Declared interests
The study was financially supported by FAEPEX. No commercial sponsor or other author conflict is stated in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume the high mean adherence score means patients are reliably taking their anticoagulant correctly. It was self-reported, and the authors say social desirability may have overestimated adherence.