Current status of oral anticoagulant adherence in Japanese patients with atrial fibrillation: A claims database analysis.

Background: Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are widely used for stroke prevention in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). We investigated the adherence of DOACs for years known to be associated with the effectiveness in Japanese NVAF patients, using a claim database.

Method: We performed a retrospective evaluation of NVAF patients in a claims database in Japan, who initiated dabigatran, rivaroxaban, and apixaban between April 2011 and June 2016. Drug persistence was assessed by Kaplan-Meier method for the initially-prescribed DOAC and all DOACs including switched ones. Proportion of days covered (PDC) was also evaluated in patients with persistent prescription and compared among DOACs.

Results: In the total of 671 patients, rivaroxaban (47%) was more prescribed than dabigatran (28%) and apixaban (25%). Drug persistence at 3 years was higher in rivaroxaban (69%) than dabigatran (57%) and apixaban (67%). Including switching to other DOACs, persistence of DOACs was 72% at 3 years without significant differences between index-DOACs. In multivariate Cox regression analysis, absence of hypertension, and prior history of cancer were significantly associated with the drug discontinuation of all DOACs. The mean PDC was ~ 95% and the frequency of high-adherent patients (PDC ≥0.80) was more than 90%, which similarly persisted at 3 years and showed no significant differences between index DOACs.

Conclusion: In a real-world Japanese claim data analysis, about 70% of patients under DOAC showed persistence with anticoagulation therapy at 3 years. High adherence to DOACs assessed by PDC (over 90%) persisted to 3 years regardless of the types of DOACs.