Factors Affecting Medication Adherence in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

ABSTRACT

Background@#Adherence to medication in patients with rheumatoid arthritis has been associated with decreased disease activity and morbidity in prior reports. However, adherence in this population remains suboptimal. This study evaluated the levels of medication adherence and determined the factors thereof in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. @*Methods@#We analyzed cross-sectional data from 345 rheumatoid arthritis outpatients at a university-affiliated hospital. The level of medication adherence was then determined. Lastly, a multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify the predictors significantly associated with medication adherence. @*Results@#Approximately 65% of the subjects were categorized as medication-adherent. In univariate analysis, educational level, perceived health, attitude toward medication, and level of learned helplessness all differed significantly between the adherent and nonadherent groups. When controlling for other factors, higher levels of learned helplessness significantly lowered the likelihood of patients’ adherence to medication in our cohort. @*Conclusions@#Given that learned helplessness is modifiable, the results of this study suggest that interventions to decrease the degree of learned helplessness should be developed and implemented in order to increase the levels of medication adherence in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and improve clinical outcomes: