Long-term adherence to antimuscarinic drugs when treating overactive bladder in the older: Subjective reason and objective factors.

PURPOSE: Comparison of subjective reasons for the refusal of antimuscarinic treatment and the state of objective economic, social, psychological and health status markers in the elderly with overactive bladder. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One thousand seven hundred thirty-six (1,736) patients participated in the experiment: 1,036 or 59.7% of women, and 700 or 40.3% of men aged over 60 years (average age, 68.1 years) who took antimuscarinic (AM) drugs during the year. The control of objective parameters was carried out by studying patients' medical records, the use of overactive bladder questionnaire short form and Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Shor-Form Health Survey, voiding diaries, uroflowmetry, as well as income certificates from the Tax Inspectorate, support documentation for expenses on drugs. RESULTS: Fifty-two point six percent (52.6%) of patients preserved adherence to treatment during the first 6 months, 30.1% - during the follow-up period. The average time of reaching a 30-day break in the AM drugs administration was 174 days. In 36.5% of cases of the refusal of treatment, patients referred to medical reasons for the refusal, in 31.6% of cases disturbance was established in objective health status markers (differences were significant in 30% of the follow-up time). The percentage of refusals of treatment for social and psychological reasons (13.2%) was significantly lower (p≤0.05), than the percentage of individuals with statuses altered objectively (21.9%). CONCLUSIONS: A significant share of elderly patients taking AM drugs when treating overactive bladder is inclined to overestimate the importance of health factors influencing their decisions and to underestimate the importance of social and psychological factors, and an urologist should take it into account for the efficacy evaluation.

Social, Economic, and Medical Factors Associated With Solifenacin Therapy Compliance Among Workers Who Suffer From Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms / 대한배뇨장애요실금학회지

PURPOSE: The prevalence of hyperactive-type lower urinary tract symptoms is 45.2%, with shares of overactive bladder (OAB) and urge incontinence (UI) symptoms of 10.7% and 8.2%, respectively. We investigated the possible impact of a wide range of social, economic, and medical factors on compliance with solifenacin treatment in the working population. METHODS: Social, economic, and medical factors as well as the Overactive Bladder questionnaire – the OAB-q Short Form (OAB-q SF), bladder diaries, and uroflowmetry of 1,038 people who were administered solifenacin for a year were gathered from employer documentation. RESULTS: Among the subjects, 32% maintained their compliance with solifenacin treatment throughout the year. Only 65% of the patients had compliance exceeding 80%, and 17% of patients had compliance of ≥50%, yet less than 80% were still taking solifenacin 12 months after the beginning of this experiment. Working people whose compliance level was, at least, 80% had reliably higher (P≤0.01) average age, annual salary, and treatment efficacy, and a greater treatment satisfaction level, as well as a lack of satisfaction with other antimuscarinic treatments and higher rate of urge UI diagnosis. The same cohort also featured a lower level (P≤0.01) of caffeine abuse and lower share of salary spent purchasing solifenacin. CONCLUSIONS: This study has shown that compliance with solifenacin treatment is associated with a number of significant medical, social, and economic factors. The medical factors included the type of urination disorder, severity of incontinence symptoms, presence of side effects, treatment efficacy and patients’ satisfaction with it, and experience using other antimuscarinic treatments. Among the social and economic factors, those with the strongest correlation to compliance were patient age, employment in medicine and education, annual income level, percentage of solifenacin purchase expenditures, and caffeine abuse. Factors with a weaker, but still significant, association were gender, employment in the transportation industry, and monthly income level.