title: Adherence to combined Lamivudine + Zidovudine versus individual components: a community-based retrospective medicaid claims analysis.
abstract: Adherence to a fixed dose combination of dual nucleoside antiretroviral therapy was compared between human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients newly started on a fixed dosed combination of lamivudine (3TC) 150 mg/zidovudine (ZDV) 300 mg versus its components taken as separate pills. Medicaid pharmacy claims data were used for analyses. To examine the association between treatment group and medication adherence, three types of multivariate regressions were employed. In addition, all regressions were conducted for the whole population using data from 1995 to 2001 as well as a subpopulation, which excluded data prior to September 1997. Model covariates included patient characteristics, healthcare utilization, and non-study antiretroviral therapy use. The likelihood of > or =95% adherence among patients on combination therapy was three times greater than patients taking 3TC and ZDV in separate pills. Also, combination therapy patients had on average 1.4 fewer adherence failures per year of follow-up and nearly double the time to adherence failure compared to the separate pills group. Consistency among study results suggests that fixed dose combination therapies such as lamivudine (3TC) 150 mg/ zidovudine (ZDV) 300 mg should be considered when prescribing HIV treatment that includes an appropriate dual nucleoside.
authors.affiliation: UCLA School of Public Health, Department of Health Services, Los Angeles, California, USA. alegorreta@healthbenchmarks.com
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Legorreta
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chernicoff
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gilmore
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jordan
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Rosenzweig
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D019380:Anti-HIV Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy*; D017320:HIV Protease Inhibitors / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D019259:Lamivudine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008484:Medicaid / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010349:Patient Compliance / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015215:Zidovudine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D019380:Anti-HIV Agents; D017320:HIV Protease Inhibitors; D019259:Lamivudine; D015215:Zidovudine