Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention: Tailored Pharmacy-based Interventions to Improve Medication Adherence, Updated 2026

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention: Tailored Pharmacy-based Interventions to Improve Medication Adherence, Updated 2026
• Corporate Authors:
  Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF)
• Description:
  Intervention Definition: Tailored pharmacy-based interventions aim to help patients with cardiovascular disease risk conditions take their medications as prescribed. Community or health system pharmacies use assessment tools or interviews to identify adherence barriers for each patient. Pharmacists then provide tailored guidance and services to reduce those barriers. Tailored guidance includes either focused medication counseling or motivational interview sessions. Services include one or more of the following: patient tools such as pillboxes, medication cards and calendars, medication refill synchronization, and enhanced follow-up. Interventions may include additional components such as communication between the pharmacist and the patient's primary care provider, or patient education materials. Interventions may be used alone, or they may be part of a broader intervention to reduce patients' cardiovascular disease risk. ; CPSTF Finding (April 2019) The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends tailored pharmacy-based adherence interventions based on strong evidence of effectiveness in increasing patient adherence to medications for cardiovascular disease prevention. Studies of interventions delivered by pharmacists in community and health system pharmacies found meaningful increases in the proportion of patients who reported taking medications as prescribed. The CPSTF finds the intervention is cost-effective for cardiovascular disease prevention based on a median estimate of $11,298 per quality adjusted life year (QALY) saved, which is below a conservative threshold of $50,000. ; The 2019 Findings and Rationale Statement was updated in August 2026. This update include the addition of these supporting document appendices: Appendix A: Analytic Framework (Effectiveness Review); Appendix B: Search Strategy (Effectiveness Review); Appendix C: Included Studies (Effectiveness Review); Appendix D: Analytic Framework (Economic Review); Appendix E: Search Strategy (Economic Review); Appendix F: Included Studies (Economic Review); Appendix G: Summary Evidence Table (Economic Review).
• Content Notes:
  Publication date supplied by CPSTF
• Subjects:
  • Cardiovascular Diseases
  • Cardiovascular Diseases / morbidity
  • Cardiovascular Diseases / mortality
  • Cardiovascular Diseases / prevention & control
  • Cholesterol
  • Heart Diseases
  • Hypercholesterolemia
  • Hypertension
  • Hypotension
  • Medication Adherence
  More +
• Keywords:
  • Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention
  • Pharmacy
  • Medication Adherence
  • Preventive Services
  • High Blood Pressure and High Cholesterol
• Series:
  CPSTF Finding and Rationale Statement
• Subseries:
  Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.15620/cdc/168665
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Rights:
  Public Domain
• CIO:
  Office of Science (OS)
• Topic:
  Diseases and Conditions
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  119 pdf pages
• Citation:
  The Community Preventive Service Task Force (CPSTF). Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention: Tailored Pharmacy-based Interventions to Improve Medication Adherence, Updated 2026. The Community Guide www.thecommunityguide.org. The Community Preventive Service Task Force, Atlanta, Georgia, 2026. https://doi.org/10.15620/cdc/168665
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/168665/cdc_168665_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.58 MB]
• Collection(s):
  The Community Guide
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7f41102a3e9f84e05c01dac7d9c9d955fdea056d09e20aa57ffb35735d1dc8b24ffee158a5c2ec32258d3c8b2008b0acf8a738e509dd14dcc02f580dd406b148