And the Answer Is...

Answer: False

Patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) are more likely to receive prescriptions for statins if they consult with a cardiologist, have a history of smoking, don’t report statin-related adverse events, and develop CHD at a younger age, according to researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Their recent assessment of nearly 25,000 patients with CHD showed women were 6% less likely than men to begin statin therapy and 4% less likely to continue taking statins after they had been prescribed. Why? The study also revealed that fewer women smoked or consulted with cardiologists. Women were also more inclined to report adverse events related to statin use and typically developed coronary artery disease 10 years later than men, according to the study. Those factors accounted for nearly all of the difference in statin prescription rates between the sexes, said the researchers.

Dr. Alexander Turchin, an associate professor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and one of the study’s authors, said health-system pharmacists can help dismantle disparities in health care by developing and implementing educational programs that identify patients who are at high risk of cardiovascular disease and monitoring their treatment to ensure as many as possible receive evidence-based pharmacotherapy. The programs could include global efforts such as sending emails about the proper use of statin therapy to all providers within a health system or individualized approaches that target providers who are prescribing lipid-lowering therapy less frequently than their peers, according to Dr. Turchin. He also pointed out that patient education could provide evidence-based information that helps improve their acceptance of statin therapy.