Compliance of Women in Taking Estrogen Replacement Therapy

Abstract

An epidemiologic study was carried out in 2106 women 46–63 years of age to determine their compliance in taking estrogen replacement therapy (ERT), using prescription refill information from a centralized prescription database (United Healthcare affiliated health plan in Minnesota). Two definitions of noncompliance were compared: first, if a woman stopped filling her prescriptions entirely; second, if she took less than 80% of the recommended daily dosage as calculated from prescription refill data. By 1 year, the percentage of women who were noncompliant was 38% and 76% for the two definitions, respectively. The survival curve for the first definition indicates that most women continue to fill their prescriptions over time and, for the second definition, that many women do not take their estrogen precisely as prescribed. These results confirm that the compliance of women taking ERT is low and that the benefits from ERT cannot be fully realized unless women are compliant.