Therapeutic adherence in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: a cross-sectional study

Introduction. The aim of the research was the study of the adherence to treatment in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Methods. Cross-sectional study including 132 consecutive patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLICC, 2012 classification criteria). We collected clinical and socio-demographic data, socio-economic status; we assessed SLEDAI-2k disease activity, and estimated the adherence to treatment by Morisky questionnaire.

Results. Our results demonstrated that low adherence to treatment in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus was in only 11.36% of patients, while 43.18% and 45.46% of the patients were scored as moderate and high adherence, respectively. A moderate/high adherence to treatment was associated to a high level of education (r = −0.51, p < 0.05, 95% CI = −0.25 to −0.66), low disease activity (r = 0.38, p < 0.05, 95% CI = 0.25 to 0.53) and low indices of physician global assessment (r = −0.31, p<0.05, 95% CI = −0.23 to −0.71). The sub-analysis of the adherence to each drug demonstrated that the highest adherence was to treatment with glucocorticosteroids – 92.85%, followed by hydroxychloroquine and aspirin – 92.15% and 89.79%, respectively.

Conclusion. In our cohort, the adherence to treatment was high in 45.46%, moderate in 43.18% and low in only 11.36% cases. High adherence to treatment was associated to low disease activity. The adherence was positively influenced by the age at the onset of the disease and a high educational level.