Relationship Between Treatment Adherence and the Risk of Cardiovascular Diseases Among Patients With Coronary Artery Stents

Background & Aims :

One of the concerns of nurses and physicians is the adherence to treatment in patients with heart diseases. In Iran, there are no accurate statistics on the treatment adherence of patients with coronary artery stents, and the risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in these patients has not been investigated. Therefore, this study aims to determine the relationship between treatment adherence and the risk of CVDs in patients with coronary artery stents.

Materials & Methods:

 This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from June to August 2021 in Shahid Madani Hospital in Tabriz, Iran. Participants were 200 patients who underwent coronary angioplasty in the past year and had coronary artery stents. They were selected by a simple random sampling method. To collect data, a demographic form, the treatment adherence questionnaire, and the Framingham risk score (FRS) were used. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS software, version 22 using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation test, t-test, and one-way analysis of variance.

Results :

The mean age of the patients was 61.6±10.62 years. Most of them were male (60.5%) and married (68%). The overall mean score of treatment adherence was 41.50±8.48, indicating moderate adherence. Patients had poor adherence in domains of dietary regimen and regular physical activity such that most of them used high-fat food (87%) and had the least amount of physical activity per week (92.4%), but they used prescribed medicines on time (70.3%). Based on the FRS, men were twice as likely to have CVDs as women. There was a significant association between treatment adherence and the risk of CVDs, such that the risk of CVDs in the next 10 years among patients decreased with increasing their adherence to treatment (r=-0.25, P<0.001).

Conclusion:

 Given that there is a significant relationship between treatment adherence and the risk of CVDs in patients with coronary artery stents, and considering that these patients have poor adherence to a low-fat diet and regular physical activity, it is recommended that nurses in their patient education programs emphasize adherence to having a low-fat diet and regular physical activity and identify the barriers to achieving it, so that, by increasing patients’ adherence to treatment, the risk of CVDs in the next 10 years can be reduced in these patients.