FRIDAY, Dec. 15, 2023 (HealthDay News) — People with heart failure who live in neighborhoods with higher levels of poverty and unemployment are less likely to fill their drug prescriptions, according to a study published online Dec. 14 in JAMA Network Open.
Amrita Mukhopadhyay, M.D., from the NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City, and colleagues examined the association between neighborhood-level socioeconomic status (nSES) and medication nonadherence among patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. Analysis included 6,247 adult patients seen at a single health system (June 30, 2020, to Dec. 31, 2021).
The researchers found that patients in lower nSES areas had higher rates of nonadherence (ranging from 51.7 percent in the lowest quartile to 40.0 percent in the highest quartile). Patients living in the lower two nSES quartiles had significantly higher odds of nonadherence versus patients living in the highest nSES quartile in adjusted analysis (odds ratios, 1.57 and 1.35 for quartiles 1 and 2, respectively). Access to transportation and pharmacy density did not mediate results; results were mediated slightly by neighborhood walkability.
“These findings highlight the importance of considering neighborhood-level disparities when developing approaches to improve medication adherence,” the authors write.
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