FRI0091 UNEMPLOYED FEMALE RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS PATIENTS ARE LESS ADHERENT TO THE BIOLOGIC DMARD TREATMENT

Background: The 5-item Compliance Questionnaire for Rheumatology (CQR5) allows the identification of patients likely to be high adherers (HAs) to anti-rheumatic treatment (i.e. taking ≥80% of their medications correctly), or “low” adherers (LAs). An Italian version of the questionnaire was validated (I-CQR5) [1]. Objectives: The objective was to investigate what factors are associated with high treatment adherence according to I-CQR5 in RA patients treated with biologic DMARDs (bDMARDs). Methods: RA patients (with disease duration >1 year, undergoing treatment with ≥1 self-administered biological disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (bDMARD), willing and capable of completing the questionnaire unaided) were enrolled in the study. I-CQR5 were anonymous and clinical data were collected from the local database. Factors included were demographic, social characteristics of the patients, clinical and treatment variables. Factors achieving a p Results: Among 604 RA patients, 193 patients were included in the validation analysis. Median age of the patients was 57 years (46-65), 142 (73.4%) were females, median disease duration was 15 years (9-21); 82 (42.7%) patients were treated with low dose bDMARDs; 174 (91.1%) patients were in low disease activity or remission (Fig.1). HAs were 40.9% (79/193) of patients: 100% (193/193) of patients treated with bDMARDs and 22.4% (57/193) of those treated with bDMARDs in combination with conventional synthetic DMARDs. Female gender, no employment, lower education level, positive Rheumatoid Factor and/or Anti-Citrullinated Peptides Antibodies, low bDMARD dose, higher patient-VAS were significantly more frequent in LAs compared with HAs. In the multivariate analysis, employment was also positively and significantly associated with high adherence: OR 2.89 (1.3-6.44), p=0.009 (Tab.1). Conclusion: As previously reported only one third of RA patients treated with bDMARDs were found to be HAs to treatment according to the I-CQR5. Employment status was the major determinant, increasing by almost 3-fold the likelihood of being adherent. Education level and female gender might be also taken into account as factors influencing treatment adherence. Reference: [1] Ometto F., et al. Treatment adherence in rheumatoid arthritis italian patients using a validated version of the 5-item compliance questionnaire for rheumatology (I-CQR5). EULAR18-4294. Disclosure of Interests: None declared