UNASSIGNED: Medication adherence is believed to be a major contributor to treatment outcomes yet studies quantifying this relationship as rare in @entity309 ( @entity309 ). To determine the association of adherence to DMARD therapy with treatment outcomes among new and existing DMARD users over 2  years. Relevant clinical parameters were obtained from a longitudinal cohort of @entity309 @entity1 , most of who were treated with combination therapy. @entity1 were classified as adherent if the proportion of days covered for each DMARD was >= 80%. Outcome measures were the change in the disease activity score in 28 joints (DAS28), simplified disease activity index (SDAI), modified health assessment questionnaires (mHAQ) and proportion of @entity1 who achieved response criteria. An inverse propensity-score weighting method was used to estimate the association of adherence with each outcome. Of 194 @entity1 invited, a total of 111 @entity1 (new   =   45 and existing   =   66 DMARD users) met study eligibility. DMARD-naive @entity1 demonstrated relatively higher rates of adherence compared to existing users. After controlling for confounding variables, adherence was significantly associated with reduction in DAS28 (b   =   -1.5, 95% CI of b   =   -   2.17 to -0.83, p   <   0.0001), SDAI (b   =   -9.44, 95% CI of b   =   -15.53 to -3.35, p   =   0.002) and mHAQ (b   =   -0.269, 95% CI of b, -0.462 to -0.077, p   =   0.017) over 2  years among new @entity1 and adherent @entity1 were more likely to achieve most response criteria compared to non-adherent @entity1 . Such associations were not replicated among existing DMARD users. Adherence to combination @entity13655 therapy was associated with improvements in disease activity and functional outcomes in the first 2  years of therapy.

Adherence to combination DMARD therapy and treatment outcomes in XXXX : a longitudinal study of new and existing DMARD users.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['Patients', 'patients'] @entity309 :: ('MESH:D001172', 'Disease') :: ['rheumatoid arthritis', 'RA'] @entity13655 :: ('MESH:D018501', 'Chemical') :: ['DMARD']
@entity309 :: (MESH:D001172,Disease) :: ['rheumatoid arthritis']
