| Author/Editor | Ožura, Ana; Kovač, Lea; Šega, Saša | |
| Title | Adherence to disease-modifying therapies and attitudes regardingdisease in patients with multiple sclerosis | |
| Type | članek | |
| Source | In: Proceedings of the 6th Dubrovnik International Conference on Multiple Sclerosis, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 10-12 May 2012 Assen : Elsevier | |
| Publication year | 2013 | |
| Volume | str. S6-S11 | |
| Language | eng | |
| Abstract | tAlthough currently there is no cure for MS the course of the disease can be influenced by disease modifyingtherapy (DMT). For therapy to be sufficiently efficient, it is crucial that patients take their medicationregularly as prescribed. Adherence describes the extent to which a patient acts in accordance with theprescribed timing, dosing, and frequency of medication administration. To date, there are no known dataabout adherence rates among patients with MS in Slovenia. We wanted to assess adherence in patientswith MS, who are treated with first line DMTs and discover reasons for non-adherence. A number of 451patients were invited to participate. They received two questionnaires via post mail. The adherence rateand putative reasons for non-adherence were assessed by the use of standardized self-report MultipleSclerosis Treatment Experience Questionnaire (MSTEQ). Patients attitudes regarding disease, therapyand relationship with their physician were assessed by another questionnaire. The analysis of resultsincluded 299 patients. Among the patients 18.5% missed at least one medication dose in the past 28days. Patients taking Avonex were significantly more adherent then patients on other DMTs (p = 0.005).Our study showed a higher then expected adherence among Slovenian patients with MS (81.5%). Ourresearch did not confirm the influence of side effects or patients attitudes regarding illness and therapy onadherence. However we found unexpectedly high percentage (71.8%) of patients belief that psychologicalfactors are involved in MS aetiology. | |
| Keywords | multiple sclerosis patient adherence disease-modifying treatment side effects attitudes |