Adherence With Protocol Medication Use and Mortality From Unrelated Causes in a Prevention Trial

    August 2021 in “ Preventive Medicine ”
    Paul F. Pinsky, Phyllis J. Goodman, Howard L. Parnes, Leslie G. Ford, Lori M. Minasian
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    TLDR Not taking prescribed medications properly can lead to higher death rates from unrelated health conditions.
    The study examined the relationship between initial adherence to medication use and mortality in the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT), which included 18,667 men aged 55 and over. Non-adherence was defined as taking under 80% of required pills during the first or second 6-month trial period. The study found that 16.5% of the participants were non-adherent, with the most common reasons being side effects (33.9%) and forgetting to take pills (22%). The mortality rate was higher among non-adherent men, with hazard ratios (HRs) at 5 years being 1.62, 1.55, and 1.49 for three different models. The study concluded that non-adherence to taking protocol medications was associated with increased mortality from unrelated conditions.
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