Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in Middle-aged and Elderly Iranians Using a Single PolyPill

Cardiovascular diseases (myocardial infarction and stroke) are the most common cause of death and disability in Iran and account for nearly half of all-cause mortality in Iranians. Therefore, prevention of cardiovascular diseases is a top priority in countries with limited health system budgets such as Iran.

Eighty seven to hundred percent of patients dying from Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) have at least one risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, risk factor modification in middle-aged and old individuals might prevent death and is a main priority. Combination drug therapy has been proposed as a cost-effective measure to reduce modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular disease in aged people. It has been showed that combination drug therapy can potentially decrease ischemic heart events and strokes by 88 and 80 percent, respectively.

The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of PolyPill tablet (a fixed dose combination of two anti-hypertensive medications, atorvastatin and aspirin) on primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease in Iranian adults older than 50.

This is a study on subjects older than 50 enrolled in the Golestan Cohort Study. The study is designed as a pragmatic cluster randomized trial. The study comprises three arms as follows:

• 4234 randomly selected participants receive PolyPill tablets once daily and Minimal care (which consists of direct education and pamphlet on cardiovascular risk reduction, biannual follow-ups and BP measurements).
• 4177 randomly selected participants receive only Minimal care as described above.
• Include remaining 24000 participants of rural participants of Golestan cohort, aged 50 and higher who receive the basic primary health care provided by the local physicians and Community Health Workers for the whole participants of Golestan Cohort study consistent with the current Iranian Health Care System guidelines. A random sample of 4395 subjects from this usual care arm were selected from this group as the third arm of the study and outcome ascertainment will be performed for this sample and will be used in the secondary comparison.

Arms #1 and #2 are compared via a 2-armed open-labeled cluster Randomized Controlled Trial. Comparisons between arm #3 and the other 2 arms are also performed.

Endpoints include major cardiovascular events (death and hospitalization)

Inclusion criteria

• 50-79 years old
• Enrollment in the Golestan Cohort Study

Exclusion criteria

• Hypersensitivity to any of PolyPill components:

• Hypersensitivity to Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents
• Hypersensitivity to statins
• Hypersensitivity to hydrochlorothiazide or sulfonamides
• Hypersensitivity to enalapril and valsartan
• Past medical history of angioedema
• Medical history of GI bleeding or peptic ulcer in the last 3 months
• Pregnancy or lactation
• Bleeding disorders such as hemophilia
• Receiving anticoagulation therapy
• Alcohol consumption greater than 40gr/week
• Advanced liver disease
• Uncontrolled seizures
• Asthma with any of the following criteria present:

• Daily symptoms
• Asthmatic attacks waking the patient from sleep more than once a week
• History of nasal polyps
• Aspirin sensitive asthma
• Presence of rhinitis symptoms not due to infection
• Past medical history of gout
• Serum creatinine values above 2 mg/dL or a Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR) below 30 mL/min
• Hemoglobin concentrations below 11 g/dL for males and 10 g/dL for females
• BP < 90/60
• Debilitating medical/mental disorders affecting medication compliance (including psychosis, disabilities, and blindness)
• Past medical history of stroke