Significant differences in use of drugs between men and women have been reported. Our aim was to explore potential areas of sex-differences in statin adherence.
A retrospective study was carried out, including incident statin users aged>40 years. Adherence was measured using the daily possession ratio (DPR). Sex-stratified log-binomial models were fitted to estimate relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence intervals for the association between optimal adherence (DPR>80%) and several factors. Sex-stratified adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) with corresponding 95%CI for CV events associated with time-varying cumulative statin adherence were also estimated.
The cohort included 310,271 women and 303,383 men (mean age 65.7±10.8 and 62.9±10.6 years, respectively). During the first year of follow-up, 28.80% of men and 33.93% of women had only one statin prescription (p<0.001). The mean 1-year DPR and the proportion of adherent patients (DPR>80%) were higher for men (0.48±0.35 vs 0.41±0.32; 27.08% vs 18.77%; all p<0.001). The likelihood of adherence (RR) was higher for men with prescribed high potency statins, antihypertensive or antithrombotic treatment, while it was higher for women with an antidiabetic treatment and past hospitalization for CV events (all p<0.0001). Compared with women and men with DPR≤40% of follow-up, we found a comparable significant CV risk reduction with DPR>80% in both sexes (aHR 0.812 [0.761-0.866] and aHR 0.785 [0.751-0.820], respectively).
Women were more likely to be less adherent to statin treatment than men, with significant sex-differences in influencing factors. Given the marked CV risk reduction observed with increasing adherence, customize strategies to improve adherence are warranted.

04 - SEX-DIFFERENCES IN ADHERENCE TO STATIN THERAPY IN A REAL-WORLD POPULATION