Inadequate therapy behavior is associated to disease flares in patients with rheumatoid arthritis who have achieved remission with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs.
OBJECTIVE
(1) To determine 6-month follow-up adherence and persistence with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis with disease under control. (2) To compare disease flares across adherent, nonadherent, persistent and nonpersistent patients. (3) To identify differences in adherent and persistent rates among therapeutic regimens. (4) To identify baseline prognosticators of poor compliance.


METHODS
Ninety-three patients (86% female) had 4 consecutive 2-month apart evaluations during which the 28-joint disease activity score and the Health Assessment Questionnaire were scored, comorbidities and treatment recorded and a compliance questionnaire and a drug record registry applied. Descriptive statistics, Student t and χ tests and logistic regression analysis were used.


RESULTS
At the study entry, patients had mean ± standard deviation age of 40.8 ± 13.9 years, the 28-joint disease activity score of 2.1 ± 1.1, the Health Assessment Questionnaire of 0.09 ± 0.2, and 68 of them (73.1%) had remission. During follow-up, 47 patients (50.5%) were adherent and 51 (54.8%) persistent; 14 of 68 patients (20.6%) who achieved remission had a disease flare. Incidence rate and individual risk of a disease flare were significantly greater in nonadherent and nonpersistent patients. Compared with methotrexate monotherapy, therapeutic regimens with >3 disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs had increased risk of nonadherence and nonpersistence (P ≤ 0.02). Higher previous serial erythrocyte sedimentation rate was associated to nonadherence (as was a shorter follow-up at the Clinic) and to nonpersistence (odds ratio: 1.03; 95% confidence interval: 1.01-1.05 for both, P = 0.05 and P = 0.001, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
Therapy behavior of patients with rheumatoid arthritis with mild/no disease activity and disability was poor and translated into disease flares. Higher serologic activity was associated to poor compliance with therapy.
Contreras-Yáñez
Irazú
I
Department of Immunology and Rheumatology, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, México City, México.
Ponce De León
Sergio
S
Cabiedes
Javier
J
Rull-Gabayet
Marina
M
Pascual-Ramos
Virginia
V
D000328:Adult; D018501:Antirheumatic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008727:Methotrexate / Q000008:administration & dosage; D008875:Middle Aged; D010349:Patient Compliance / Q000523:psychology; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012074:Remission Induction; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D018501:Antirheumatic Agents; D008727:Methotrexate