[Treatment inertia in secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. FRENA registry].
OBJECTIVE
Although nowadays there are many cardiovascular disease (CVD) treatment protocols and evidence based guidelines, not many patients achieve the recommended levels for cardiovascular (CV) risk factor (RF) and management of disorders could be improved. Treatment inertia (TI) is the failure of health care providers to initiate or intensify therapy when indicated. The purpose of this study was to quantify TI in secondary CV prevention and identify factors influencing TI.


METHODS
Observational, transversal study with 1660 patients included in FRENA (The FRENA registry recruited Spanish patients in CVD secondary prevention treated by different specialists), aged 66,3 years, 74% males, 38,5% females, 38,5% coronary heart disease (CHD), 30,8% cerebrovascular disease and 32% peripheral artery disease (PAD). Final variable: TI; three types of inertia where described: treatment failure inertia, RF control inertia and the third one was at least one of the previous. Uni and multivariate analysis were done for each type of inertia.


RESULTS
Inertia was detected in 81,5% of the patients. RF control inertia was 85,1% and treatment failure inertia 53%. Diabetic patients are likely to be treated with TI whereas patients with renal insufficiency (RI) or arterial hypertension (AHT) are more likely to be protected against it. There is less treatment failure inertia in cerebrovascular disease or coronary heart disease Vs PAD, AHT and Dyslipemia (DL) where the rate of treatment failure inertia is higher. RF control inertia increases with the coexistence of AHT, DL and diabetes mellitus (DM) and is lower in patients with previous CVD, cerebrovascular disease, AHT and DL.


CONCLUSIONS
In high risk patient, TI is present in a high percentage of them. DM, PAD and the coexistence of cardiovascular risk factors are associated with a higher inertia.
Roa
Leonor
L
Servicio de Medicina Interna, Hospital Universitario de la Princesa, Madrid, España. leonor.roa@web.de
Monreal
Manuel
M
Carmona
José A
JA
Aguilar
Eduardo
E
Coll
Ramón
R
Suárez
Carmen
C
D000368:Aged; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D019983:Guideline Adherence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012042:Registries; D055502:Secondary Prevention