Factors Associated with Medications Adherence among Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Abstract: Background: Rheumatoid arthritis is a progressive systemic inflammatory autoimmune disease that initially affects the joints, manifesting as pain, stiffness, and synovitis leading to the destruction of cartilage and bone, functional limitation, and disability also accompanied by extra-articular organ involvement. Although this inflammatory process is reversible, it may progress into irreversible damage of articular structures if left untreated and may lead to loss of function. DMARDs remain the first-line treatment of RA. The aim of RA treatment is to achieve remission, or low disease activity, avoid joint damage and disability, maintaining the quality of life, and controlling extra-articular manifestations. Therapeutic success depends on both drug’s efficacy and medications adherence. Objective: To identify factors associated with medications adherence among patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Setting: The study was conducted at the Rheumatology Outpatient Clinic in the Alexandria Main University Hospital. Subjects: A convenience samples of 120 adult patients with rheumatoid arthritis from both sexes were selected from the above-mentioned settings. Tools: three tools were used for data collection. Tool I: Socio-demographic, Clinical Data, and Patient's Knowledge Structured Interview Schedule, Tool II: Korean Version of the Hill-Bone Medication Adherence Subscale (HBMA-K),Tool III: Factors Associated with Medications Adherence among Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis Structured Interview Schedule. Results: the study revealed that more than half (55%) of the studied patients had poor knowledge, while more than one third (36.7%) had fair knowledge and only (8.3%) had good knowledge. Whereas, it was found that more than half (53.4%) of the studied patients had moderate adherence to medications, while more than one third (38.3%) of them had highly adherence and only 8.3 of them had poor adherence to medication. There was no statistical significant relationship between studied patients knowledge and their level of medications adherence as (P =0.360). Whereas there were statistically significance relation between the Therapy related factors, condition-related factors, patient related factors, educational, social and economic factors, and health care system factors and adherence level to medications as (p <0.001). Conclusion: study revealed that most of the studied patients with RA were adherent to their medications, and more than half of them had poor knowledge related to RA disease. Recommendations: Develop and implement health teaching program to improve patients' knowledge regarding the rheumatoid arthritis disease and its treatment. Keywords: Adherence, Factors affecting, Medications, Rheumatoid Arthritis. Title: Factors Associated with Medications Adherence among Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis Author: Neama Azzam Hamed Abd Elhamid Azzam, Yousria Mohamed Salem, Maha Adel Salem, Mervat Adham Mostafa Ghaleb International Journal of Novel Research in Healthcare and Nursing ISSN 2394-7330 Vol. 11, Issue 3, September 2024 - December 2024 Page No: 81-96 Novelty Journals Website: www.noveltyjournals.com Published Date: 26-December-2024 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14558188 Paper Download Link (Source) https://www.noveltyjournals.com/upload/paper/Factors%20Associated%20with%20Medications-26122024-7.pdf