Adherence to disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs in rheumatic diseases during COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Background: The pandemic COVID-19 has set a new challenge in adherence to treatment in patients with rheumatic diseases. Prior studies in Latin America had reported adherence of 16.4% on Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and 45.9% in Systemic Lupus Erythematous (SLE). There is evidence that these patients believe their treatment increases the risk and gravity of COVID-19 and therefore, suspending the treatment could reduce this risk. It has been shown that a Good adherence is associated to a better survival. Objectives: Describe the adherence to DMARDs in patients with Rheumatic diseases during COVID-19. Methods: Descriptive, cross-sectional, self-report study conducted in rheumatology outpatient clinic of University Hospital in Monterrey, México. Consecutive patients with RA, SLE, Inflammatory Myopathies and Systemic Sclerosis, were approached during their routine appointments, March 2020 to December 2020 period during COVID-19 pandemic. They were asked how many days of the month they took the DMARD indicated in the previous appointment, with Based on this, adherence was classified into four categories Good 100-75% (> 21 days), Regular 74-50% (21-15 days), Bad 49-25% (14-8 days) and Null <25% (<7 days). Data was obtained from our internal electronic patient record registry and analyzed with SPSS V.22. RESULTS: Conclusion: Despite what it is believed, patients are not changing therapeutic regimes. The adherence found in this group of patients was good, for the definition used in this study. It should be considered that the self-report method may overestimate adherence, so the data found must be correlated with objective methods in the future.