Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify patient characteristics and statin discontinuation-related factors in patients with hypercholesterolemia.
Methods: A total of 532 patients (age mean+/-SD: 57.4+/-11.5 years; 52.4% women, 47.6% men) with hypercholesterolemia and statin discontinuation were included in this national cross-sectional noninterventional observational study. Data on socio-demographic characteristics of patients, cardiovascular risk factors, past treatment with and discontinuation of statin treatment were collected in one visit.
Results: Mean+/-SD duration of hypercholesterolemia was 4.9+/-4.2 years at time of discontinuation of statin treatment. Statin treatment was initiated by cardiologists in the majority of cases (55.8%), whereas discontinuation of statin treatment was decided by patients in the majority of cases (73.7%), with patients with higher (at least secondary education, 80.4%) more likely than those with lower (only primary education, 69.7%) to decide to discontinue treatment (p=0.022). Negative information about statin treatment disseminated by TV programs-mostly regarding coverage of hepatic (38.0%), renal (33.8%), and muscular (32.9%) side effects (32.9%)-was the most common reason for treatment discontinuation.
Conclusion: The decision to discontinue statin treatment was made at the patient's discretion in 74% of cases, with higher likelihood of patients with higher educational status deciding to discontinue treatment and switch to non-drug lipid-lowering alternatives. Cardiologists were the physicians most frequently responsible for the initiation of the statin treatment; coverage of several non-lifethreatening statin side effects by TV programs and patients' lack of information regarding high cholesterol and related risks were the leading factors predisposing to treatment discontinuation.
C1 [Tokgozoglu, Lale] Hacettepe Univ, Fac Med, Dept Cardiol, TR-06100 Ankara, Turkey.
[Ozdemir, Ramazan] Inonu Univ, Dept Cardiol, Fac Med, Malatya, Turkey.
[Altindag, Rojhat] Diyarbakir Training & Res Hosp, Dept Cardiol, Diyarbakir, Turkey.
[Ceyhan, Ceyhun] Adnan Menderes Univ, Dept Cardiol, Fac Med, Aydin, Turkey.
[Yeter, Ekrem] Diskapi Yildirim Beyazit Training & Res Hosp, Dept Cardiol, Ankara, Turkey.
[Ozturk, Cihan] Kahramanmaras Pazarcik Private Middle East Hlth C, Dept Cardiol, Kahramanmaras, Turkey.
[Bayram, Fahri] Erciyes Univ, Fac Med, Dept Endocrinol & Metab, Kayseri, Turkey.
[Delibasi, Tuncay] Diskapi Yildirim Beyazit Training & Res Hosp, Dept Endocrinol & Metab, Ankara, Turkey.
[Degertekin, Muzaffer] Yeditepe Univ, Fac Med, Dept Cardiol, Istanbul, Turkey.
[Dinckal, Mustafa Hakan] Bagcilar Training & Res Hosp, Dept Cardiol, Istanbul, Turkey.
[Keles, Ibrahim] Istanbul Univ, Dept Cardiol, Cerrahpasa Fac Med, Istanbul, Turkey.
[Fak, Ali Serdar] Akad Hosp, Dept Cardiol, Istanbul, Turkey.
[Aydogdu, Sinan] Turkish High Specialty Training & Res Hosp, Dept Cardiol, Ankara, Turkey.
[Zorkun, Cafer] Yedikule Chest Dis & Thorac Surg Training & Res H, Dept Cardiol, Istanbul, Turkey.
[Tartan, Zeynep] Atasehir Mem Hosp, Dept Cardiol, Istanbul, Turkey.