OBJECTIVES: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) poses the biggest burden in mortality across the world. Interventions to prevent and treat CVD are encouraged by associations through Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) publication and their inclusion in national therapeutic lists. We aimed to assess the effect of the 2013 AHA/ACC CPG on the treatment of blood cholesterol publication and the inclusion of atorvastatin and rosuvastatin in the health benefits plan in 2012 and 2014 respectively, in the consumption of these two drugs plus lovastatin in Colombia.

METHODS: An interrupted time series (ITS) analysis was performed in the quarterly consumption in DDD of the drugs as reported to the Integrated System for the Supply of Medicines and Medical-Surgical Supplies (SISMED). We tested for correlation and autocorrelation and adjusted the model accordingly.

RESULTS: ITS analysis showed an increase in the trend of atorvastatin consumption after its introduction to the health benefits plan (t = 9.326 12; df = 12; p<0.001) with a 5.57 DDD quarterly increase. After the AHA/ACC CPG publication and rosuvastatin introduction to the health benefits plan, changes for atorvastatin were seen in trend (-2.37 DDD per quarter; t = -2.327; df = 20; p<0.05) and level (16.57 DDD per quarter; t = 2.758; df = 20; p<0.05). An increase in rosuvastatin consumption trend in this period was seen (0.56 DDD per quarter; t = 4.162; df = 20; p<0.001). No changes were seen in lovastatin consumption after neither event. Counterfactual comparison validated the modeling fitting for each time-point analysis. Atorvastatin changes persisted after ITS cointervention analysis (p=0.024).

CONCLUSIONS: Atorvastatin consumption exceeds the other statins after changes were made to its coverage in the health-system. No significant impact was proved by the publication of 2013 AHA/ACC CPG. It is necessary to maintain the assessment of its impact on Colombia’s health-system resources and CVD burden.