Adherence to Nucleoside/Nucleotide Analogue Treatment in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis B

• Published in: Balkan medical journal Vol. 34; no. 6; pp. 540 - 545
• Main Authors: Tütüncü, Emin Ediz, Güner, Rahmet, Gürbüz, Yunus, Kaya Kalem, Ayşe, Öztürk, Barış, Hasanoğlu, İmran, Şencan, İrfan, Taşyaran, Mehmet A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Turkey Galenos Yayinevi Tic. Ltd 01.12.2017; Trakya Üniversitesi; Galenos Publishing; Galenos Publishing House
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Antiviral Agents - therapeutic use; Care and treatment; chronic hepatitis B; Cross-Sectional Studies; Directive Counseling - methods; Drug resistance; Female; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Health Literacy - statistics & numerical data; Hepatitis B; Hepatitis B, Chronic - drug therapy; Humans; Male; Medical research; Medication adherence; Medication Adherence - statistics & numerical data; Middle Aged; nucleoside/nucleotide analogues; Nucleosides - therapeutic use; Original; Patient compliance; Socioeconomic Factors; Surveys; Surveys and Questionnaires; Tıp; treatment outcome; Turkey; Unemployment; Young Adult; Türkiye; Edirne; Medication adherence; chronic hepatitis B; treatment outcome nucleoside/nucleotide analogues; nucleoside/nucleotide analogues; treatment outcome
• ISSN: 2146-3123; 2146-3131
• DOI: 10.4274/balkanmedj.2016.1461

Adherence to medication is an important aspect of preventing drug resistance and treatment failure in patients receiving nucleos(t)ide analogues for chronic hepatitis B. To assess adherence to nucleoside/nucleotide analogues in chronic hepatitis B treatment and to determine factors associated with non-adherence. Cross-sectional study. The study enrolled 85 chronic hepatitis B patients who had been receiving nucleoside/nucleotide analogues for ≥3 months. A questionnaire was completed by patients themselves, and adherence was evaluated based on patients' self-reporting. The use of at least 95% of the drugs in the previous month was considered as adequate adherence. Adherence was adequate in 82.4% of patients. Female gender (p=0.003), unemployment (p=0.041) and lower monthly family income (p=0.001) were related to lower adherence. Better adherence was significantly linked to adequate basic knowledge regarding chronic hepatitis B (p=0.049), longer treatment duration than 12 months (p<0.001), previous use of other medications for chronic hepatitis B (p=0.014) and regular follow-up by the same physician (p<0.001). Counselling patients about their disease state and the consequences of non-adherence is an important intervention for enhancing adherence. Naïve patients should be followed up more frequently to reinforce adherence.