Improving medication adherence in cardiovascular disease.

The management and prevention of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) is based on adequate adherence to medications and lifestyle changes. The reported rates of adherence with cardiovascular medications range from 30% to 70%, with patients often not taking all or part of their prescribed medications. The rates of non-adherence are even higher for individual cardiovascular risk factors. Assessment of medication adherence is an important part of the management of CVD. Many interrelated socio-economic and healthcare-related factors play a role in an individual patient's adherence to medications. Understanding how these different factors affect each individual patient can lead to strategies that improve levels of adherence. This would help improve our control of CVDs, both at an individual patient level, and also at the level of national and international health.