Patterns of drug use and factors affecting adherence to medication in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: A prospective, observational, hospital- based study

Abstract

Adherence to medication is explained as a strong thought for the need of the medicine. 6 The adherence to drug therapy can significantly improve the efficacy of the treatment regimen and lower healthcare cost. The adherence reported in RA patients ranges from 30-80%. 7 Data from Indian studies report non-adherence/noncompliance to antirheumatic drugs among 52% of the patients, and interrupted compliance among 6%. 2 Sharma et al. (2015) reported dissatisfaction to drug therapy

Assessment of Drug Adherence and Adverse Effects of Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs (DMARDs) in Patients of Rheumatoid Arthritis Attending a Tertiary Care Hospital in India

“…Among all patients, 70 were females, and 5 were males. A similar finding was reported by Sripreethy etal, 2 Moreland et al, 8 Nakagava et al, 10 Marras et al, 11 Bharthi etal, 12 Sharma et al, 18 van den Bemt et al 23 Refer Table 1 for the detailed demographic characteristics of the patients.…”

“…This finding was in accordance in the systematic review published by Annalieke et al 14 Other studies carried out with a similar objective also reported similar findings. 23,24 In contrast to this, study conducted by Bharthi et al 12 and Wabe et al 17 showed improvement in adherence with increasing age. The level of education also did not correlate with the adherence to drugs, indicating that even highly educated individuals may have less than satisfactory drug compliance.…”

“…However, published literature states that adherence to drugs in RA patients ranges from 30% to 100% using different methods to measure adherence. [11][12][13][14][15] Failing to adhere to the physician's advice often results in disease progression, poor prognosis, functional disability, additional medical therapy, and surgical intervention, contributing to increased financial burden. 16,17 Apart from the doctor-patient relationship, multiple factors are expected to influence the nonadherence behavior to medication, such as socioeconomic profile, literacy status, patient perception of the disease, patient faith in medication, several drug-related factors like duration of the treatment, complexity of the regimen, and also disease-related factors such as the duration of disease, severity of disease, presence of comorbidities and functional disabilities.…”

Serial multiple mediation of treatment adherence and disease activity in the relationship between continuity of care and health outcomes among rheumatoid arthritis patients

“…[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] Likewise, it has been determined that the number of studies examining the treatment adherence levels of rheumatoid arthritis patients is high. [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41] However, it has been determined that the number of studies on the continuity of care in rheumatoid arthritis patients is limited to only one study, 42 and more importantly, there is no study that evaluates the relationship between continuity of care and health outcomes with a comprehensive disease management approach.…”

“…When the literature on rheumatoid arthritis is examined, it is possible to come across studies that examine the effects of rheumatoid arthritis on health outcomes such as quality of life and physical activity disorder in terms of one dimension in both international and national literatüre 22–31 . Likewise, it has been determined that the number of studies examining the treatment adherence levels of rheumatoid arthritis patients is high 32–41 . However, it has been determined that the number of studies on the continuity of care in rheumatoid arthritis patients is limited to only one study, 42 and more importantly, there is no study that evaluates the relationship between continuity of care and health outcomes with a comprehensive disease management approach.…”