Compliance in the real world.

Until 1994, rates of noncompliance for lipid-lowering therapies were largely drawn from clinical trials and showed favorable risks for drug discontinuation, ranging from 4-15% for 1-year risk to 11-30% for 5-year risk. Although cross-study comparisons are difficult to make because of variations in study design and measures collected, when evaluating compliance to antihyperlipidemic drugs in primary care settings, results in general show substantially higher rates of discontinuation than those reported from randomized clinical trials. Recent studies from the United States, Australia, and Canada support the conclusion that adherence to lipid-lowering drugs is very poor in primary care settings.