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ObjectivesTo study the adherence to biologic therapy (BT) in patients with RA.MethodsDesign :Cross-sectional study. Patients: Consecutive sampling stratified by route of administration in the biological therapy unit (UTB). Protocol: Patients with sc BT are alternately reviewed every 3 months in general and specific (only BT pts) outpatient clinic. Iv BT patients are checked each time the drug is infused. Both groups of pts are reviewed according to a predetermined protocol of data collection. At the start of BT all subjects are interviewed by a nurse who explains the mode of application of drugs and emphasizing the importance of adherence to the effectiveness and safety of BT. Outcome variables: (1) level of adherence evaluated by Morisky-Green Test (MGT) and withdrawal drug in hospital pharmacy or drugstore (medication possession ratio [MPR]). Good adherence was considered when 4 responses indicative of adherence were given in MGT and a MPR>80%. The attendance rate to infusions was handled as equivalent to the medication possession ratio. Other variables: Demographics, comorbidities, clinical-analytical and synthetic DMARDs reclaim in the drugstores using “XXI electronic prescription”(a software used to control the dispensations in the public health system in Andalusia) in the last 6 months. Statistical analysis: Bivariate analyses were performed using T student test, Mann Whitney U test and Ji square test, followed by binary logistic regression (BLR).ResultsThe main characteristics of the patients (n=178) are shown in the table. One hundred and twelve (63%) were with sc BT, 66 (37%) with iv BT and 49 patients (27.5%) were in monotherapy. 123/178 (69%) showed good adherence to BT and 67/129 (52%) took correctly concomitant synthetic DMARDs. Good adherence to BT was associated in the bivariate analyses with better control of the disease measured by DAS28 (p<0.001) and HAQ (p=0.006), fewer comorbidities (p=0.061), lower multimorbidity (p=0.014) and iv administration.However, in the multivariate analysis of poor adherence to BT as dependent variable identified only moderate to high activity DAS28 (OR [95% CI] = 4.51 [1.78 to 11.38]; p=0.001) and poor adherence to DMARDs (OR [95% CI] = 5.42 [2.18 to 13.24]; p<0.001) as independent predictors.VariablesValueSex (woman), n (%)138 (77,5)Any comorbidity, n (%)111 (62,4)Multimorbidity, n (%)76 (42,7)Some traditional cardiovascular risk factors, n (%)113 (63,5)Positive rheumatoid factor, n (%)153 (86,0)Positive anti–cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies, n (%)142 (79,8)DAS28 at protocol, mean (DE)2,99 (1,3)DAS28 average, mean (DE)3,04 (1,2)HAQ at protocol, mean (DE)1,20 (0,7)HAQ average, mean (DE)1,19 (0,7)ConclusionsAdherence to BT of patients with RA in a specific unit is moderate (69.1%) and adherence to the concomitant synthetic DMARDs is bad (52.7%).Patients with moderate or high activity in the previous 6 months, have 4.5 odds of having a bad adherence to FAMEb compared to those who are in remission or have low activity. Likewise, patients who do not take in proper ...