Better Medications Adherence Lowers Cardiovascular Events, Stroke, and All-Cause Mortality Risk: A Dose-Response Meta-Analysis

AIMS: We investigated the association between vascular medication adherence, assessed by different methods, and the risk of cardio-cerebrovascular events and all-cause mortality. METHODS: A meta-analysis with a systematic search of PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, and Cochrane databases from inception date to 21 June 2021 was used to identify relevant studies that had evaluated the association between cardiovascular medication adherence levels and cardiovascular events (CVEs), stroke, and all-cause mortality risks. Pooled relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using a random-effects meta-analysis. Restricted cubic splines were used to model the dose-response association. RESULTS: We identified 46 articles in the dose-response meta-analysis. The dose-response analysis indicated that a 20% increment in cardiovascular medication, antihypertensive medication, and lipid-lowering medication adherence level were associated with 9% (RR: 0.91, 95% CI 0.88-0.94), 7% (RR 0.93, 95% CI: 0.84-1.03), and 10% (RR 0.90, 95% CI: 0.88-0.92) lowers risk of CVEs, respectively. The reduced risk of stroke respectively was 16% (RR: 0.84, 95% CI: 0.81-0.87), 17% (RR 0.83, 95% CI: 0.78-0.89), and 13% (RR 0.87, 95% CI: 0.84-0.91). The reduced risk of all-cause mortality respectively was 10% (RR: 0.90, 95% CI: 0.87-0.92), 12% (RR 0.88, 95% CI: 0.82-0.94), and 9% (RR 0.91, 95% CI: 0.89-0.94). CONCLUSIONS: A better medication adherence level was associated with a reduced risk of cardio-cerebrovascular events and all-cause mortality.