title: Agreement of Turkish physiatrists with the assessment in spondyloarthritis international society and the European league against rheumatism recommendations for the management of ankylosing spondylitis and rheumatoid arthritis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  New developments in the field of targeted therapies or biologic agents led more effective management of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Recommendations for the management of rheumatic diseases propose to reduce inappropriate use of medications, minimize variations among countries, and enable cost-effective use of health care resources.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim this study was to evaluate conceptual agreement of ASsessment in SpondyloArthritis International Society (ASAS) and the EUropean League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) recommendations for the management of AS and EULAR recommendations for RA and to assess the rate of application among Turkish physiatrists in daily clinical practice.
  
  
  METHODS
  An online survey link has been sent to 1756 Turkish physiatrists with e-mails asking to rate agreement on 11-item ASAS/EULAR AS recommendations and 15-item EULAR RA recommendations with synthetic and biological disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs. Also barriers and difficulties for using biologic agents were assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three hundred nine physiatrists (17.5%) completed the survey. The conceptual agreement with both recommendations was very high (Level of agreement; mean 8.35±0.82 and 8.90± 0.67 for RA and AS recommendations, respectively), and the self-declared application of overall recommendations in the clinical practice was also high for both RA and AS (72.42% and 75.71%, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Turkish physiatrists are in good conceptual agreement with the evidence-based recommendations for the management of AS and RA. These efforts may serve to disseminate the knowledge and increase the current awareness among physicians who serve to these patients and also implementation of these recommendations is expected to increase as well.
authors.affiliation: Division of Rheumatology, Department of PMR, Erciyes University, Faculty of Medicine, Gevher Nesibe Hospital, Kayseri Turkey.
authors.forename: Salih
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ozgocmen
authors.forename: Ozgur
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Akgul
authors.forename: Aysen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Akıncı
authors.forename: Sebnem
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ataman
authors.forename: Murat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Birtane
authors.forename: Hatice
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bodur
authors.forename: Rezan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Günaydın
authors.forename: Omer
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kuru
authors.forename: Aylin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rezvani
authors.forename: Omer Faruk
authors.initials: OF
authors.lastname: Sendur
authors.forename: Kazım
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Senel
authors.forename: Tiraje
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tuncer