In a new study from Monash University, researchers emphasize how critical it is for survivors of first-time stroke to take medications on an ongoing basis, with new findings highlighting long-term links with survival.
In Australia, someone suffers a stroke every 19 minutes and it is one of Australia’s biggest killers. In addition, nearly half of all survivors of stroke are expected to experience a recurrent cardiovascular event within 10 years.
Specific medications help to prevent this long-term risk, but adherence to these agents is often suboptimal among patients.
In the study, the team used linked data from 8,363 adult patients who survived a first stroke between July 2010 and June 2014, with follow-up for a further three years.
They found for patients with one-year adherence above 60%, each 10% improvement in adherence was linked to a 13–15% reduction in the death risk.
The team says there are several factors associated with a greater chance of continued use of secondary prevention medications: provision of medication on hospital discharge, regular contact with a primary care physician, and specialist physician contact.
These findings represent important implications for practice by highlighting the value of efforts to improve medication adherence post-stroke, even among patients with near-perfect adherence.
The paper in Stroke is titled “Greater Adherence to Secondary Prevention Mediations Improves Survival After Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack: A Linked Registry Study.”
If you care about stroke, please read studies about for people with high blood pressure, this method may cut heart attack, stroke risk by 50% and findings of your mom’s lifestyle may predict when you will have first heart attack or stroke.
For more information about stroke and your health, please see recent studies about most people with type 2 diabetes have high risk of a fatal heart attack or stroke and results showing that avoiding these foods can lower your heart disease, stroke risk.
The study is published in Stroke. One author of the study is Associate Professor Monique Kilkenny.
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