Do Patients on Meds Become Complacent About Lifestyle?

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Hello. This is Dr JoAnn Manson, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital.

I'd like to talk with you about a recent study that addressed whether lifestyle factors change after initiating medications for hypertension or high cholesterol. There's been some concern that patients may become more complacent about lifestyle factors after starting pharmacotherapy for these conditions.

Previous studies have tended to be cross-sectional; this was the first large-scale prospective cohort study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association and done in Finland. The Finnish Public Sector Study included more than 41,000 participants aged 40 and older who had no prior history of cardiovascular disease. Information about the initiation of medications was obtained from pharmacy claims databases, and the participants completed multiple surveys during follow-up of about 14 years about their lifestyle behaviors.

They found that among those who initiated pharmacotherapy for hypertension or elevated cholesterol, there was a tendency toward less favorable lifestyle practices. For example, there was a greater odds of becoming physically inactive or reducing physical activity level. There was also a greater odds of gaining weight and a greater risk of developing obesity