Analysis of compliance with medical therapy in elderly patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the compliance with medical therapy in elderly patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).Methods The BPH patients aged 66 to 93 treated with 5α-reductase inhibitor (finasteride) and/or α-blockers (tamsulosin,doxazosin or terazosin) were followed up for 6 months.The retrospective data,including international prostatic symptom score (IPSS),quality of life (QOL),maximum flow rate (Qmax),prostate volume (PV),the information of medical types,total number of days of medication supplied,discontinuation and switching of therapy,and adverse effects were collected and analyzed.Results In all 103 subjects,30 patients (29.1％) received α-blockers,25 patients (24.3％) received finasteride,and 48 patients (46.6％)received combination therapy.After a follow-up of 6 months,the medication possession ratio (MPR)was 0.89±0.23 with a good-compliance rate (MPR≥0.8),discontinuation rate and switching rate were 79.6％ (82 cases),5.8％ (6 cases) and 6.8％ (7 cases),respectively,while the efficacy rate,the adverse reaction rate,incidence of acute urinary retention (AUR) and incidence of BPH related operations were 73.8％ (76 cases),12.6％ (13 cases),15.5％ (16 cases) and 4.9％ (5 cases),separately.The MPR (0.90±0.24) and good-compliance rate (84.0％) in patients treated with finasteride were both greater than those with α-blockers (0.87 ± 0.25,76.7％) and combination therapy (0.89 ±0.22,79.2％),but with no significant difference.Compared with patients with badcompliance,the efficacy ratio of medical therapy was significant higher in patients with goodcompliance (81.7％ vs.42.9％),while the incidence of adverse effects and AUR were significant fewer (7.3％ vs.33.3％ and 9.8％ vs.38.1％).Conclusions Elderly patients received either monotherapy or combination therapy with finasteride and α-blockers have good-compliance,which might be associated with the good effect of medical therapy and fewer adverse effects.