The relationship between symptom scores and medication adherence in stable COPD patients

Abstract

Introduction and Objectives: Compliance to treatment is a common problem when managing chronic diseases. The aim of this study is to assess the factors that affect medication adherence in patients with stable COPD and determine the relationship between medication adherence and symptom scores. Methods: Patients with stable COPD were included in the study. In addition to the demographic and socioeconomic data; Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8) score for compliance and COPD Assessment Test (CAT) score for symptom evaluation were performed. MMAS-8 is a self-reported questionnaire to assess compliance. Compliance is accepted as low between 0-5 points, moderate with 6-7 points and total with 8 points. Results: 83 (F/M: 11/72, mean age 62.8±8.9 yrs) stable COPD patients were included in the study. Mean MMAS-8 score was 4.83±1.6 and mean CAT score was 16.7±8.6. According to MMAS-8 scores, 46 patients had low compliance (55.4%) 37 were moderately compliant (44.6%). There were no totally adherent patients. There was no relationship between medication adherence and age, gender, education level or additional comorbid diseases. Patients with low medication adherence were observed to have higher CAT scores. The median CAT score of patients with low adherence was 20.5 (0-38), while it was 12 (0-32) ( p =0.001) in patients with moderate adherence. Furthermore, a negative correlation between CAT and MMAS-8 scores was observed (r=-0.384) ( p Conclusion: Since the patients with lower medication adherence have higher symptom scores, the importance of compliance should be reminded at each visit and the efforts should be placed to reinforce compliance.