Huying Zhang,
Yurong Gu 
,
Lu Chen,
Jinwei Zhu,
Chao Luo,
Weijun Zhou
For correspondence:- Yurong Gu Email: yurong.gu2@gmail.com
Accepted: 31 January 2023 Published: 28 February 2023
Citation: Zhang H, Gu Y, Chen L, Zhu J, Luo C, Zhou W. Patients satisfaction with treatment using anti-rheumatic drugs, and their adherence to medication: A non-interventional, cross-sectional study among some Chinese outpatients. Trop J Pharm Res 2023; 22(2):439-446 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v22i2.29
© 2023 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..
Purpose: To determine satisfaction with treatment and adherence to medication amongst Chinese patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
Methods: This cross-sectional study enrolled 398 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients who filled out questionnaire during outpatient consultation. The Chinese version of the Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire (C-TSQM-II) was used to evaluate treatment satisfaction, while the Chinese Compliance Questionnaire for Rheumatology (threshold ≤ 80) and the medication possession ratio (MPR) were used for the assessment of adherence to medication.
Results: In all medications, treatment satisfaction was higher in the mild subgroup and the moderate subgroup than in the severe subgroup (p < 0.05). Treatment satisfaction scores with respect to biological disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) were significantly lower in patients in the severe subgroup than in those in the moderate subgroup, with respect to convenience and global satisfaction (p < 0.05). Moreover, for bDMARDs therapies, treatment satisfaction was higher in the moderate subgroup than in the severe subgroup in all four areas examined (p < 0.05). The Chinese Compliance Questionnaire score showed that 156 patients (39 %) were adherent to medication, while 242 patients (61 %) were not. Results from MPR indicate that 310 patients (78 %) were adherent to medication, while 68 patients (22 %) were not. In the mild group, 96.5 % of patients were adherent to all medications, and 94.4 % were adherent to bDMARDs.
Conclusion: Patients were most likely unable to distinguish amongst disease progression, disease-induced damage, and other causes of pain or discomfort. Treatment satisfaction and medication adherence were higher in patients with mild rheumatoid arthritis.
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