Mexican American women less likely to take stroke prevention medications as prescribed
Women who have had a stroke may be less likely than men to take medications to prevent a second stroke, with Mexican American women reporting the highest rates of nonadherence, according to a new study from University of Michigan School of Public Health researchers. The findings, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, investigated whether participants reported taking their secondary stroke prevention medications as prescribed at 90 days after stroke.
The findings revealed that women who were older, married and/or lacking private health insurance were also more likely to miss taking prescribed doses.
“Our findings point to concerning disparities between men and women’s reports that they take these medications routinely as prescribed, especially among Mexican Americans,” said senior study author Lynda Lisabeth, a professor of Epidemiology and Neurology at the University of Michigan. “Clinicians might consider screening for these factors and discussing the importance of not missing doses when prescribing these medications to patients to help reduce their risk of having another stroke.”
Lisabeth said future research is needed to investigate other factors not included in the current study that might contribute to sex differences in taking medications as prescribed, including psychological and interpersonal factors, such as patient concerns about potential side effects, patient perceptions of medication benefits, caregiving roles and whether patients are seeing health care professionals of the same sex, which has been shown to improve medication adherence.
Read the press release from the American Heart Association.
Paper Cited: "Sex Differences in Nonadherence to Secondary Stroke Prevention Medications Among Patients With First‐Ever Ischemic Stroke." Journal of the American Heart Association. https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.124.036409
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