After controlling for baseline demographic and clinical differences, nonadherent patients were about threefold more likely to die than adherent patients, reported Ms. Guérin and her associates from the Analysis Group, Inc. in a poster at the meeting. Additional analyses of these data showed that the noncompliant patients were more often age 65 or older, women, nonwhite, and had more comorbidities based on having a higher Charlson comorbidity index. After controlling for baseline demographic and clinical differences, noncompliant patients were more likely to be hospitalized, had more inpatient days, were more likely to require emergency room visits, and had higher health care costs, compared with compliant patients.
The studies by the Analysis Group were also sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline.