We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Medication adherence in older people with rheumatoid arthritis is lower according to electronic monitoring than according to pill count.
- Authors
Hartman, Linda; Cutolo, Maurizio; Bos, Reinhard; Opris-Belinski, Daniela; Kok, Marc R; Griep-Wentink, Hanneke (J) R M; Klaasen, Ruth; Allaart, Cornelia F; Bruyn, George A W; Raterman, Hennie G; Voshaar, Marieke J H; Gomes, Nuno; Pinto, Rui M A; Klausch, L Thomas; Lems, Willem F; Boers, M
- Abstract
Objectives Suboptimal medication adherence is a serious problem in the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases. To measure medication adherence, electronic monitoring is regarded as superior to pill count. GLORIA is an ongoing two-year trial on the addition of low-dose (5 mg/d) prednisolone or placebo to standard care in older people (65+ years) with RA. During the entire trial, adherence is measured with electronic caps, and with pill counts. The objective is to describe medication adherence patterns, and to compare the adherence results of the two methods. Methods The recorded adherence patterns of patients (blinded for treatment group) were classified according to descriptive categories. The cutoff for good adherence was set at 80% of prescribed pills taken. Results Trial inclusion closed in 2018 at 451 patients, but trial follow-up is ongoing; the current dataset contains adherence data of 371 patients. Mean number of recorded 90-day periods per patient was 4 (range 1–8). Based on pill count over all periods, 90% of the patients had good adherence; based on cap data, only 20%. Cap data classified 30% of patients as non-user (<20% of days an opening) and 40% as irregular user (different adherence patterns, in or between periods). Conclusion In our trial of older people with RA, the majority appeared to be adherent to medication according to pill count. Results from caps conflicted with those of pill counts, with patterns suggesting patients did not use the bottle for daily dispensing, despite specific advice to do so. Trial registration NCT02585258. ClinicalTrials.gov (https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/)
- Subjects
CLINICAL drug trials; EVALUATION of medical care; GLUCOCORTICOIDS; ANTIRHEUMATIC agents; COMPARATIVE studies; RANDOMIZED controlled trials; RHEUMATOID arthritis; DRUG monitoring; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; PATIENT compliance; ELECTRONIC health records; EVALUATION; OLD age
- Publication
Rheumatology, 2021, Vol 60, Issue 11, p5239
- ISSN
1462-0324
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/rheumatology/keab207