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Abstract Background/Aims To explore the relationship of clinical and psychological factors with adherence based on a patient self-reported questionnaire from a prospective longitudinal study of patients receiving TNFi biologic treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, recruited since 2008. Methods Analysis of data collected from a prospective longitudinal UK study (Biologics in Rheumatoid Arthritis Genetics and Genomics Study Syndicate BRAGGSS) of patients with moderate to severe RA commencing TNFi biologic treatment. Clinical data including Disease Activity Score-28 (DAS28), serological status (Rheumatoid Factor positivity) and body mass index (BMI) were collected. Patients also completed self-reported questionnaires, the health assessment questionnaire (HAQ), hospital anxiety and depression scale (HAD), beliefs about medicine questionnaire (BMQ), brief illness perception score (B-IPQ) and a self-reported adherence questionnaire. Adherence was defined as any deviation from prescribed medication regime such as altering the dose, forgetting a dose, stopping treatment, missing a dose, and taking less than instructed. Associations between demographic and psychological variables and adherence were evaluated using regression models and a multivariable logistic regression model was used to further evaluate associations, controlling for BMI. Results 1,513 patients (75.7% female, age 58.1 IQR 16.0, disease duration 9.6 ± 9.6 years and pre-treatment DAS28 scores 5.7 ± 0.8) were included. 70% of patients self-reported adherence to their medication. When comparing the different TNFi treatments, etanercept had the lowest levels of adherence at the 3 and 6 month time-points. Adherence was higher in those with older age (β = 0.03, p 0.01), higher baseline CRP levels (β = 0.01, p= 0.03) and higher necessity beliefs (β = 0.04, p= 0.03). Adherence was lower in those with higher tender joint counts at baseline (β=-0.03, p= 0.04) and 3 months (β = 0.03, p= 0.02) (Table I). These associations persisted after controlling for the effects of BMI using a multivariable logistic model. Conclusion Self-reported adherence was 70% in this BRAGGS population. Factors associated with non-adherence included higher tender joint counts and lower necessity beliefs pre-treatment, which may allow targeting of interventions to optimise adherence in these groups. Disclosure T.K.Y. Chong: None. N. Nair: None. A.W. Morgan: None. J.D. Isaacs: None. A.G. Wilson: None. K.L. Hyrich: Honoraria; Abbvie. Grants/research support; K.H has grants from BMS and Pfizer. D. Plant: None. A. Barton: Grants/research support; A.B has received funding/speaker fees from BMS, Pfizer and Galapagos.
Chong et al. (Mon,) studied this question.