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Objectives:  On average, 50% of patients are noncompliant with drugs for chronic health problems, despite their proven efficacy. It is therefore essential to have real‐world data to devise suitable methods for improving persistence with these therapies. To measure and compare persistence rates with the angiotensin‐converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) in primary and secondary prevention and their determinants.

Methods:  Two cohorts were reconstructed from the Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec's databases. The subjects had to be newly treated with ACEIs between January 1, 1998 and December 31, 2000. The primary prevention cohort consisted of 4596 hypertensive patients and the secondary prevention cohort of 1620 patients. The cumulative persistence rates were determined by the Kaplan–Meier method. The determinants of nonpersistence were evaluated with a Cox regression model.

Results …