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| Over 90% of stroke survivors adhere to aspirin regimen |
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28 February 2006
Spanish researchers have found that the majority of stroke survivors are diligent in their adherence to aspirin therapy for at least 6 months after being prescribed the medication for secondary stroke prevention.
Dr Aida Lago and colleagues from La Fe University Hospital in Valencia suggest that adherence to aspirin treatment seen in clinical trials may be better than that in medical practice, "because patients included in clinical trials are well informed," and adherence to medication is closely supervised.
In order to ascertain the level of patient compliance with secondary preventive medication in primary care, the team identified 73 stroke patients who had been prescribed aspirin at discharge. The patients, after having taken aspirin for an average of 25 months (range = 6-144 months), were interviewed and asked to attend a laboratory for blood testing. The participants were not informed that the purpose of the testing was to ascertain their adherence to aspirin therapy.
"Aspirin compliance was found to be excellent," the investigators write in the journal Cerebrovascular Diseases. All of the 66 patients who presented themselves for laboratory testing exhibited inhibition of platelet thromboxane A2 synthesis to an extent that was consistent with regular aspirin use. Even with the assumption that those who failed to attend the laboratory were not taking aspirin regularly, the rate of compliance was 90.4%.
Furthermore, Lago et al note that three of the seven patients who did not attend may have been unable to do so because of significant physical disabilities, as all had modified Rankin Scale scores of 3 or more. Thus, the actual level of compliance could be even higher, they suggest.
Reference:
Cerebrovasc Dis 2006; 21 (5-6): 353-356.
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