Most patients on statins have long periods of nonadherence, but simple measures might help reduce these gaps, according to a Canadian study in Archives of Internal Medicine.

Researchers using databases of the publicly funded healthcare system in British Columbia identified some 240,000 new users of statins, roughly 130,000 of whom had at least 90 days of continuous nonadherence. When patients resumed their prescriptions, the researchers looked at events in the weeks preceding resumption to find what factors may have prompted it.

An incident MI was the event most strongly associated with resumption of statins. Other strongly associated events included a visit with the physician who started the patient on statins, a visit with another physician, a cholesterol test, and hospitalization for other cardiovascular disease.

The authors of the study, which was not sponsored by a drug manufacturer, write that "the process of patients reinitiating treatment seems to be strongly related to factors that are, in part, under the control of individual physicians

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