Associations Between Treatment Satisfaction, Medication Beliefs, and Adherence to Disease-Modifying Therapies in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

Background: Adherence to disease-modifying therapy (DMT) remains problematic for many patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). An improved understanding of factors affecting DMT adherence may inform effective interventions. This study examined associations between treatment satisfaction, medication beliefs, and DMT adherence. Methods: A survey was mailed in 2016 to 600 adult patients with relapsing-remitting MS taking an injectable or oral DMT. Patients were sampled from the North American Research Committee on Multiple Sclerosis (NARCOMS) Registry. The survey measured self-reported DMT adherence (doses taken divided by doses prescribed during previous 2-week period—adherence ≥0.80), DMT satisfaction using the Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication version II, medication beliefs using the Beliefs About Medicines Questionnaire, and demographic and clinical covariates. Relationships between variables were examined using multivariate logistic regression. Results: Final analyses included 489 usable surveys. Mean ± SD participant age was 60.5 ± 8.3 years. Most respondents were white (93.8%), female (86.6%), taking an injectable DMT (66.9%), and adherent to DMT (92.8%). Significant predictors of DMT adherence were age (odds ratio [OR], 1.086; 95% CI, 1.020–1.158; P = .011), type of DMT (oral vs. injectable; OR, 23.350; 95% CI, 2.254–241.892; P = .008), and DMT experience (naive vs. experienced; OR, 2.831; 95% CI, 1.018–7.878; P = .046). Conclusions: In patients with MS sampled from a patient registry, treatment satisfaction and medication beliefs were not significantly associated with DMT adherence. Based on significant predictors, younger patients, patients taking injectable DMTs, and patients with previous experience with another DMT(s) are at higher risk for nonadherence. Future research is warranted to assess relationships between variables in more diverse MS populations.

Personal Health Perceptions as Predictors to Medication Adherence in a Prospective Cohort Study Among Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

“…The ndings on the prospective association of beliefs about medication with adherence and persistence in medication taking is congruent with previous work in other conditions (37)(38)(39). Still, beliefs about medication were scarcely studied among PwMS; the only study that examined adherence to DMTs was cross-sectional and found no association between medication beliefs and adherence (13). Hence, the current study is the rst to demonstrate such an association with adherence and persistence.…”

“…Higher individual's adherence scores represent better adherence rates. Adherence categories are low (sum score 0-4), medium low (sum score 5-9), medium-high (sum score [10][11][12][13][14] and high (sum score [15][16][17][18]. Internal reliabilities of the ProMas were baseline = 0.83, Time 1 = 0.82 and Time 2 = 0.83.…”

“…Factors most often studied are social-economic and patient-related, as the rst is easier to measure and the latter is considered as potentially modi able in interventions, including perceptions on illness, medication beliefs, habits in medication and affective states (11,12). Most studies on adherence among PwMS examined the social-economic factor and only few studies investigated patientrelated factors (13)(14)(15) or therapy-related (2,(16)(17)(18).…”

Adaptation and validation of a Spanish version of the treatment burden questionnaire in patients with multiple sclerosis

“…We found significant differences in TB in patients receiving oral versus injectable therapies. This has been previously described [30,31] and is an additional factor that must be taken into account when choosing specific disease-modifying treatments for the individual patient. We also detected significant correlation between TBQ scores and medication adherence.…”

Adherence to disease modifying therapies in patients with multiple sclerosis

“…Pa sau lio stu di jø, ver ti nu siø lei dþia mø ar ba pe ro ra li niø vais tø varto ji mo draus min gu mà, re zul ta tai yra prieð ta rin gi [21][22][23][24][25]. Jei gu vie ni ty ri mai sta tis tið kai pa ti ki mo skir tu mo tarp draus min gu mo, var to jant vais tus tab le të mis ar ba kap su lëmis ar ba lei dþian tis in jek ci jas po oda ar á rau me nis, ne randa [21,22], tai ki ti ty ri mai áro do, kad vais tø var to ji mo forma tu ri áta kos LEM vais tø draus min gu mui [26,27]. Taèiau, anot dau ge lio ty ri mø, svar biau si fak to riai, tu rin tys áta kos draus min gam LEM vais tø var to ji mui, yra am þius (18-34 m.), vy rið ka ly tis ir dep re si jos ne bu vi mas [22][23][24][25].…”