Medication adherence halves COPD patients’ hospitalization risk – evidence from Swiss health insurance data

We contribute to the literature in 3 ways: (1) We show that medication adherence – measured by the PDC – varies substantially among COPD patients; (2) high medication adherence potentially halves the risk of hospitalized exacerbations; and (3) utilizing real-world (insurance) data yields accurate figures for medication adherence.

We grouped the PDC of COPD patients into five categories. With regard to the distribution, categories 1 and 2 include 6280 COPD patients (48% of total sample). Thus, a large number of COPD patients have a PDC of…