Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention: Tailored Pharmacy-based Interventions to Improve Medication Adherence

The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends tailored pharmacy-based adherence interventions for cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention. In these interventions, pharmacists in community and health system pharmacies use interviews or assessment tools to identify barriers that keep people at risk for CVD from taking their medicines as prescribed. Pharmacists then provide tailored guidance and services — like medication counseling and tools such as pillboxes — in an effort to reduce barriers. CPSTF found that these interventions increase the proportion of patients who report taking medicines as prescribed and that the interventions are cost-effective for CVD prevention.