Cost of heart drugs makes US patients skip pills, Mayo research reveals

For more than five million Americans with heart failure, a critical step to better health is taking the medications they are prescribed. But many patients fail to do so, putting themselves at greater risk of hospitalization and even death.

To date, studies have not fully answered why patients fall short when it comes to taking heart medicine. In a study appearing in the April issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Mayo Clinic researchers found the drugs’ cost is one of the biggest deterrents. “We found patients weren’t filling their prescriptions because of the expense,” says Shannon Dunlay, Mayo Clinic cardiologist and lead author of the study.

The study recruited patients from Olmsted County, Minnesota, and tracked their pharmacy records. Previous studies looked only at electronic prescription claims data, possibly missing drugs purchased with cash or not covered by insurance, Dr Dunlay says. The 209 patients in the study, aged 60 to 86, were asked how often they missed doses or did not take drugs at all, and why.