"The medicine is not something that interests me at all." Beliefs, health-related behaviors, and medication adherence in patients with symptomatic peripheral arterial disease

Abstract Background Despite evidence-based guidelines recommending secondary prevention with antithrombotics and lipid-lowering therapies, adherence to optimal pharmacological therapies remains suboptimal in patients with symptomatic lower extremity peripheral arterial disease (PAD), potentially contributing to excess morbidity and mortality. However, the behavioral factors and health beliefs underlying this behavior are still poorly understood. Purpose To explore the health-related behaviors and beliefs of patients with symptomatic PAD regarding secondary preventive therapy. Methods Using a qualitative design, we conducted individual semi-structured interviews with patients diagnosed with symptomatic PAD. Participants were recruited from four departments of vascular surgery in Denmark from December 2022 to January 2024. Data analysis was performed using framework analysis based on the six domains of the Health Belief Models1 (HBM) as analytical framework: perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers, cues to action, and self-efficacy. The HBM is widely used for conceptualizing individual’s attitudes and beliefs to explain and predict health behaviours. Results Sixteen patients participated in the study: seven adherent and nine non-adherent patients. Based on the HBM components, the following findings emerged (Figure 1). Patients expressed low perceived awareness of the severity of PAD and its potential consequences, not recognizing PAD as a systemic condition associated with broader cardiovascular risk. The perception of PAD centered around the experience of excruciating leg pain and its impact on everyday life. This focus on symptoms affected the perceived benefits of secondary preventive therapies. Patients lacked knowledge about the importance and goal of treatment and did not link the secondary preventive therapy to PAD, often associating it only with other cardiovascular diseases. Barriers included inadequate understanding of the chronic progressive nature of PAD and its severity, experience and fear of side-effects, prescription confusion, pill burden, financial constraints, and allergies. Fear of recurring pain, complications, and early death served as strong internal adherence triggers. Paradoxically, despite expressing fear, some patients were only adherent to antithrombotic therapy, not assigning the same importance to statins. Other cues to action included practical arrangements as well as establishing a trusting patient-provider relationship and receiving comprehensive and logical explanations. Conclusions This study provided new perspectives on the multifaceted challenges hindering adherence to secondary preventive therapy among patients with symptomatic PAD. Notably, the insufficient knowledge regarding the chronic progressive nature of PAD and its cardiovascular implications, underscores the need for enhanced patient education and tailored interventions to ensure optimal secondary preventive therapy.Figure 1