Income and antiplatelet adherence following percutaneous coronary intervention.

Objective: To investigate the relation of annual household income to antiplatelet adherence following PCI. Background: Treatment with 6-12 months of dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is a Class I recommendation. Adherence to these medications is essential to reduce risk of stent thrombosis and recurrent ischemic events. Social risk factors like household income modify how patients access and adhere to essential pharmacologic therapies such as antiplatelet agents. Methods: We identified individuals presenting with PCI in an administrative claims database of commercially insured and Medicare Advantage beneficiaries from 2017 to 2019. We collected data on age, sex, race, ethnicity, educational attainment, and covariates (prevalent coronary disease, medications, healthcare visits, insurance type, copay, antiplatelet medications, and Elixhauser Comorbidity Index conditions). We related annual household income, categorized as <$40,000; $40-49,999; $50-59,999; $60-74,999; $75-99,999; and ≥$100 K, to proportion of days covered (PDC) in multivariable-adjusted regression models. We defined non-adherence as PDC <80%. Results: Our dataset included 90,163 individuals (age 69.0 ± 10.9 years, 33.1% women, 25.1% non-White race) who underwent PCI. We observed graded, decreased antiplatelet adherence across income categories: rates of PDC≥80% decreased with successively lower income. Individuals with annual income <$40,000 had 1.5-fold higher odds of non-adherence (95% CI, 1.40-1.56) compared to those with income ≥$100,000 after multivariable adjustment. Conclusions: In a claims-based analysis, we determined that lower income is associated with decreased likelihood of adherence to antiplatelet agents following PCI. Our results indicate the importance of considering social risk factors in the evaluation of barriers to antiplatelet adherence following PCI.

Mind the gap: Deficits in fundamental disease-specific knowledge in atrial fibrillation.

BACKGROUND: Patient success with atrial fibrillation (AF) requires adequate health literacy to understand the disease and rationale for treatment. We hypothesized that individuals receiving treatment for AF would have increased knowledge about AF and that such knowledge would be modified by education and income. METHODS: We enrolled adults with AF receiving anticoagulation at ambulatory clinic sites. Participants responded to survey items encompassing the definitions of AF and stroke, the rationale for anticoagulation, and an estimation of their annual stroke risk. We examined responses in relation to household income and education in multivariable-adjusted models. RESULTS: We enrolled 339 individuals (age 72.0 ±â€¯10.1; 43% women) with predominantly lower annual income ($20-49,999, n = 99, 29.2%) and a range of educational attainment (high school or vocational, n = 117, 34.5%). Participants demonstrated moderate AF knowledge (1.7 ±â€¯0.6; range 0-2) but limited knowledge about anticoagulation (1.3 ±â€¯0.7; range 0-3) or stroke (1.5 ±â€¯0.8; range 0-3). Income was not associated with improvement in AF (P = 0.32 for trend), anticoagulation (P = 0.27) or stroke knowledge (P = 0.26). Individuals with bachelor or graduate degree had greater AF (1.8 ±â€¯0.5) and stroke (1.6 ±â€¯0.8) knowledge relative to those with high school or vocational training (1.4 ±â€¯0.7 and 1.2 ±â€¯0.9; P ≪ 0.01, both estimates). Education was not associated with understanding the rationale for anticoagulation. Most participants (230, 68%) estimated their annual stroke risk as ≥15%. CONCLUSIONS: We identified consistent, fundamental gaps in disease-specific knowledge in a cohort of adults receiving treatment for non-valvular AF. Improved patient understanding of this complex and chronic disease may enhance shared decision making, patient engagement, anticoagulation adherence, and clinical outcomes in AF.