F H Messerli

Dr F H Messerli, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY, USA; fmesserl@chpnet.org

REVIEW PROCESS

Aim:

in patients with chronic conditions, do fixed-dose drug combinations improve medication compliance compared with the same drugs taken separately?

Search methods:

Medline (to November 2005), reference lists, and drug companies.

Study selection and assessment:

English-language studies that compared fixed-dose drug combinations with free-drug regimens of the same medications and reported medication compliance. 9 studies (n = 20 242, mean age 40–68 y, 50–89% men) met the selection criteria. The chronic condition was hypertension in 4 studies, diabetes in 2 studies, tuberculosis in 2 studies, and human immunodeficiency virus infection in 1 study. Duration …