Beliefs and outlook toward medications in Indian patients with very early rheumatoid arthritis: Cross sectional survey

Introduction: Beliefs toward medicine influences drug compliance in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Studies on attitudes toward medicine are available for established RA, where the disease itself could have altered the beliefs. Similar studies are not available for early RA. Thus, we surveyed patients wi...

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Main Authors: Sakir Ahmed, Arup Mahapatra, Basanta Kumar Behera, Prasanta Padhan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2020-01-01
Series:Indian Journal of Rheumatology
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.indianjrheumatol.com/article.asp?issn=0973-3698;year=2020;volume=15;issue=4;spage=298;epage=303;aulast=Ahmed
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author Sakir Ahmed
Arup Mahapatra
Basanta Kumar Behera
Prasanta Padhan
author_facet Sakir Ahmed
Arup Mahapatra
Basanta Kumar Behera
Prasanta Padhan
author_sort Sakir Ahmed
collection DOAJ
description Introduction: Beliefs toward medicine influences drug compliance in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Studies on attitudes toward medicine are available for established RA, where the disease itself could have altered the beliefs. Similar studies are not available for early RA. Thus, we surveyed patients with very early RA to determine their initial outlook toward medicines. Methods: Two hundred and fifty patients fulfilling the American College of Rheumatology/European League against Rheumatism 2010 criteria for RA, who had developed arthritis within the past 3 months were surveyed using the Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire (BMQ). For the BMQ subsets (specific necessity, specific concern, general overuse, and general harm), more than scale midpoint is considered high. Depending on these scores, patients were classified as indifferent, accepting, sceptical, or ambivalent. Correlations of these scores with age, sex, time to presentation, education, occupation, and income were calculated. Results: Mean (±standard deviation) age of the cohort was 47.6 (±13.4) years with 88.4% (221) being females. Twelve (4.8%) had a high specific necessity, while 31 (12.4%) had a high specific concern score. General overuse and general harm scores were high in 248 (99.2%) and 246 (98.4%) patients, respectively. Thus, 242 (96.8%) patients were classified as indifferent, 4 (1.6%) accepting, 4 (1.6%) sceptical, and none as ambivalent. There was no statistically significant correlation between these scores and sex, age, educational status, occupation, or income. Multivariate analysis showed that persons with high specific concerns about medicines, educated to secondary level, being a student or having a desk job tended to present earlier. Conclusion: General harm and overuse scores were high, but patients had low scores on the scales specific for RA medication. Thus, most of them were classifiable as “indifferent” unlike as in previous studies on established RA.
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spelling doaj-art-e5bc91c55e004df2b6db05301be1b13c2025-02-03T11:14:52ZengSAGE PublishingIndian Journal of Rheumatology0973-36980973-37012020-01-0115429830310.4103/injr.injr_3_20Beliefs and outlook toward medications in Indian patients with very early rheumatoid arthritis: Cross sectional surveySakir AhmedArup MahapatraBasanta Kumar BeheraPrasanta PadhanIntroduction: Beliefs toward medicine influences drug compliance in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Studies on attitudes toward medicine are available for established RA, where the disease itself could have altered the beliefs. Similar studies are not available for early RA. Thus, we surveyed patients with very early RA to determine their initial outlook toward medicines. Methods: Two hundred and fifty patients fulfilling the American College of Rheumatology/European League against Rheumatism 2010 criteria for RA, who had developed arthritis within the past 3 months were surveyed using the Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire (BMQ). For the BMQ subsets (specific necessity, specific concern, general overuse, and general harm), more than scale midpoint is considered high. Depending on these scores, patients were classified as indifferent, accepting, sceptical, or ambivalent. Correlations of these scores with age, sex, time to presentation, education, occupation, and income were calculated. Results: Mean (±standard deviation) age of the cohort was 47.6 (±13.4) years with 88.4% (221) being females. Twelve (4.8%) had a high specific necessity, while 31 (12.4%) had a high specific concern score. General overuse and general harm scores were high in 248 (99.2%) and 246 (98.4%) patients, respectively. Thus, 242 (96.8%) patients were classified as indifferent, 4 (1.6%) accepting, 4 (1.6%) sceptical, and none as ambivalent. There was no statistically significant correlation between these scores and sex, age, educational status, occupation, or income. Multivariate analysis showed that persons with high specific concerns about medicines, educated to secondary level, being a student or having a desk job tended to present earlier. Conclusion: General harm and overuse scores were high, but patients had low scores on the scales specific for RA medication. Thus, most of them were classifiable as “indifferent” unlike as in previous studies on established RA.http://www.indianjrheumatol.com/article.asp?issn=0973-3698;year=2020;volume=15;issue=4;spage=298;epage=303;aulast=Ahmedattitude toward medicationsbeliefscompliancerheumatoid arthritisvery early rheumatoid arthritis
spellingShingle Sakir Ahmed
Arup Mahapatra
Basanta Kumar Behera
Prasanta Padhan
Beliefs and outlook toward medications in Indian patients with very early rheumatoid arthritis: Cross sectional survey
Indian Journal of Rheumatology
attitude toward medications
beliefs
compliance
rheumatoid arthritis
very early rheumatoid arthritis
title Beliefs and outlook toward medications in Indian patients with very early rheumatoid arthritis: Cross sectional survey
title_full Beliefs and outlook toward medications in Indian patients with very early rheumatoid arthritis: Cross sectional survey
title_fullStr Beliefs and outlook toward medications in Indian patients with very early rheumatoid arthritis: Cross sectional survey
title_full_unstemmed Beliefs and outlook toward medications in Indian patients with very early rheumatoid arthritis: Cross sectional survey
title_short Beliefs and outlook toward medications in Indian patients with very early rheumatoid arthritis: Cross sectional survey
title_sort beliefs and outlook toward medications in indian patients with very early rheumatoid arthritis cross sectional survey
topic attitude toward medications
beliefs
compliance
rheumatoid arthritis
very early rheumatoid arthritis
url http://www.indianjrheumatol.com/article.asp?issn=0973-3698;year=2020;volume=15;issue=4;spage=298;epage=303;aulast=Ahmed
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AT basantakumarbehera beliefsandoutlooktowardmedicationsinindianpatientswithveryearlyrheumatoidarthritiscrosssectionalsurvey
AT prasantapadhan beliefsandoutlooktowardmedicationsinindianpatientswithveryearlyrheumatoidarthritiscrosssectionalsurvey