Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronically progressing inflammatory disease having articular, extra-articular, and systemic manifestations of unclear origin. Medication-related burden (MRB) is a novel concept that focuses on unpleasant feelings associated with the therapeutic process. The purpose of this research was to examine MRB among Iraqi patients with rheumatoid arthritis from the patient's viewpoint.
Methods: The present research was a cross-sectional study conducted on patients with rheumatoid arthritis who had previously been diagnosed and visited Baghdad Teaching Hospital/Medical City/Rheumatology department between December 2021 through March 2022. The Living with Medicines Questionnaire was used to assess MRB (LMQ).
Results: The study recruited 250 RA patients. The average age of the patients was 47.29± 12.72 years. The vast majority were women, 80.8%. The mean LMQ score was 113.78± 13.95. Most participants experienced a moderate degree of burden of 72.0%, followed by a minimum commitment of 24.4%, a high burden of 2.8%, and no burden of 0.8%, with no patient experiencing a high burden of 0 %. Women had significantly higher medication-related burdens (total LMQ). RA patients with more than five chronic medications had substantially higher MRB than those with fewer scheduled medications. Patients with chronic diseases (other than RA) had significantly higher MRB than those without other chronic diseases. The total LMQ score had a significant positive correlation with the Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI) value. In other words, when disease severity increases, the MRB increases.
Conclusion: A considerable proportion of the RA patients involved in the current study have experienced MRB. Female sex, polypharmacy, comorbidities, and more severe disease are associated with more MRB.