Sunjoo Boo
College of Nursing¡¤Research Institute of Nursing Science, Ajou University, Suwon, Korea
Factors Affecting Medication Adherence in Patients with
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Sunjoo Boo
College of Nursing¡¤Research Institute of Nursing Science,
Ajou University, Suwon, Korea
Background: Adherence to medication in patients with
rheumatoid arthritis has been associated with de- creased
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 pa-
tients 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.
Korean J Health Promot 2020;20(4):203-210 |