Abstract
Purpose: :
Adherence is a measure of the accuracy with which a patient follows a prescribed regimen. This study assesses adherence among glaucoma patients who have been prescribed fixed dose brimonidine 0.2% / timolol 0.5% (brim/timolol) or dorzolamide 2% / timolol 0.5% (dorz/timolol) therapy or various commonly prescribed 2 to 3-bottle combination therapies.
Methods: :
This retrospective claims database analysis assessed commercial enrollees from a large U.S. health plan affiliated with i3 Innovus. Treatment naïve glaucoma patients with an index prescription for one of the glaucoma medications of interest between January 1 and June 30, 2008 were identified. Patients were only included if they were continuously eligible from six months before to twelve months after their index date. Patients were considered treatment naïve if they did not receive any glaucoma medications during the six month pre-index period. The Medication Possession Ratio (MPR) was calculated to compare adherence for 12 months following the index prescription for patients receiving fixed combination therapy including brim/timolol (n = 873), generic or branded dorz/timolol (n = 1,089), vs. various 2-bottle combination (n = 1,328) or 3-bottle combination (n = 203) therapies.
Results: :
12 month MPR was statistically significantly greater for subjects using fixed combination brim/timolol (42.2%) vs. subjects with dorz/timolol (39.3%, p<0.05) and those with various 2-bottle (34.0%, p<0.0001) or 3-bottle combinations (31.8%, p<0.0001).
Conclusions: :
Adherence is higher with fixed dose brim/timolol, although newer to the market, than with dorz/timolol therapy or various commonly prescribed 2 to 3-bottle combination therapies.
Keywords: clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: health care delivery/economics/manpower