Patient Preference and Adherence (Jul 2017)

Non-persistence and non-adherence to MTX therapy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a retrospective cohort study based on German RA patients

  • Müller S,
  • Wilke T,
  • Fuchs A,
  • Maywald U,
  • Flacke JP,
  • Heinisch H,
  • Krüger K

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 11
pp. 1253 – 1264

Abstract

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Sabrina Müller,1 Thomas Wilke,1 Andreas Fuchs,2 Ulf Maywald,2 Jan-Paul Flacke,3 Harald Heinisch,4 Klaus Krüger5 1Institute for Pharmacoeconomics and Medication Logistics, University of Wismar, Wismar, 2AOK PLUS, Dresden, 3Roche Pharma AG, Grenzach-Wyhlen, 4Chugai Pharma Europe Ltd, Frankfurt/M, 5Praxiszentrum St Bonifatius, Munich, Germany Objective: This study aimed to assess the level of nonpersistence (NP) and nonadherence (NA) to methotrexate (MTX) therapy in German patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Materials and methods: Based on German claims data, RA patients who received a MTX therapy (subgroup: treatment-naive patients) were analyzed. NP was defined as treatment gap >12 weeks. Regarding NA, it is the overall medication possession ratio (MPR) during an observational period of 12 or 24 months after therapy, and the MPR is calculated only for the periods of therapy continuation; NA was defined as MPR <80%.Results: A total of 7,146 RA patients who received at least one MTX prescription (subgroup: 1,211 treatment-naive patients) could be observed (mean age: 64.4 years, 73.6% female). Percentage of NP patients among MTX-naive patients after 6, 12 and 18 months was 16.7%, 34.0% and 36.7%, respectively. After MTX therapy discontinuation, 39.9% had restarted their MTX therapy, 13.8% had received another non-MTX synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (sDMARD), 8.1% had biological DMARD (bDMARD) and 49.2% had not received any DMARD prescription at all. Overall, 12- and 24-month MPRs for MTX therapy were 83.0% and 76.5% with a percentage of NA patients of 25.8% and 33.8%, respectively. During periods of general treatment continuation, the percentage of patients with an MPR <80% was 6.5%.Conclusion: NP to MTX treatment seems to be common in one-fourth of German patients with RA. An additional number of patients, at least 6.5%, are also affected by NA. A considerable percentage of RA patients who discontinued MTX therapy do not receive any follow-up DMARD therapy. Keywords: rheumatoid arthritis, RA, MTX therapy, adherence to MTX therapy, persistence with MTX therapy, discontinuation of MTX therapy 

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