Servier launches a new edition of the “BecauseIsayso” campaign focused on adherence to hypertension treatments. It is a worldwide campaign, developed with the Global Heart Hub patient’s association, to inform people about hypertension. As adherence is a main issue for chronic diseases, in September the focus of the campaign is on this topic for hypertension to sensibilize patients to follow their doctor’s advice, not to stop a treatment prematurely, and to take it every day.
Hypertension: still the leading cause of mortality due to the lack of adherence
Only 50% of hypertensive patients follow their treatment correctly
Hypertension is known as the ‘silent killer’ because usually there are no symptoms and yet it can lead to serious cardiovascular diseases and is the biggest single contributor to deaths worldwide. A simple blood pressure test is the only way to find out if someone has raised blood pressure.
Adherence to treatment can be defined as the patient’s ability to follow a medical specialist’s advice and instructions fully and accurately. While adherence to treatment plays a key role in treating every type of disease, its importance is often overlooked.
Why are the barriers to adherence to treatment?
Around half of patients suffering from hypertension either stop their treatment or forget to take it every day within months after starting therapy. There are many explanatory factors impacting the patient’s involvement in taking their treatment. Among them, some of the main factors are the intrinsic characteristics of pharmacological treatments (efficacy, tolerability, or simplicity of administration), especially since patients are often receiving several drug treatments. Another explanatory factor is the physician’s inability to convince the patient about the importance of the prescribed therapy, to establish a therapeutic alliance and engage the patient. In this area, Servier invests in improving the therapeutic education of patients: by strengthening patients’ knowledge of their disease, they become active partners in their care and are more receptive to support from their prescribers.
Consequences to non-adherence can be severe
A lack of adherence leads to lack of blood pressure normalization and has severe consequences, including an increased risk of developing cardiovascular events such as a heart attack or stroke. It also has adverse economic implications for health authorities as these people will require additional hospitalization and treatment.
KEY FIGURES
7.6 million
Hypertension is the leading cause of mortality, being responsible for over 11 million deaths worldwide per year. 1
3/4
Around 3 out of 4 adults with hypertension are not treated correctly and not under control.2
1/3
The risk of having a cardiovascular event increases by 1/32
50 %
Almost 50% of patients stop their treatment after only 1 year 3
Low adherence to treatments is one of the main reasons for the lack of control.
The 2023 BISS campaign: sensibilize relatives to the importance of adherence
The first “BecauseIsayso” campaign was launched in 2018, with the aim of increasing awareness and diagnosis of hypertension. During the second edition in 2019, the campaign reached more than 150 million people in 70 countries, thereby demonstrating the importance of public awareness campaigns for addressing health issues.
“Servier has been committed to fighting hypertension for 50 years, and we know through this long-time experience that, in addition to developing innovative treatments to control hypertension, it is necessary to increase patients’ information and support HCPs for the patients follow up. This sixth campaign developed globally will be the occasion to put the stress on adherence. As we know that the lack of adherence to hypertension treatments not only impacts the patient itself, but also its relatives; that is why we want to involve the beloved ones to strengthen the understanding that by correctly following a treatment and integrating it in the daily routine, patients can significantly improve their health.On the long-term, we aim at developing a wide portfolio of solutions tailored to help non-adherent patients. It will include medicines such as Single Pill Combinations (combination of different drugs in one pill) but also digital applications.”
David Pédelabat-Lartigau, in charge of the Hypertension portfolio at Servier
It is crucial to respect the dosage and the indications of the treatments. Doing so and following the doctor’s treatment plan are the best ways to ensure that the treatment will effectively control blood pressure in the long term and protect people against the risk of cardiovascular events.
“Improving adherence to treatment is key to generating better care and better outcomes. To develop the best awareness campaigns and solutions, we need to work together with all the people concerned including primarily patients. This vision has been totally integrated to our Servier 2030 ambition and Because I Say So is a great example of this team spirit with Global Heart Hub association and of our commitment to fostering therapeutic progress for patients”
Bertrand Renaud, Chief Patient Officer of the Servier Group
1 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22157565/
2 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9748759/
3 ahajournals.org