Abstract
Objectives: The main goal of rheumatoid arthritis treatment is to improve long-term quality of life by controlling symptoms and preventing progression of joint destruction. Thus, remission should be maintained via appropriate drug adherence. We studied background factors affecting the rate of drug adherence and long-term sustained remission derived from etanercept.
Methods: Patients treated with etanercept were stratified by background to compare the rate of drug adherence and sustained disease remission.
Results: The rate of drug adherence in 548 etanercept-treated patients who were initiated on treatment before July 2011 was calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method. The rate of overall 6-year drug adherence was 59.9%. Patients aged <55 years old, were associated with a greater drug adherence than those aged ≥55 years old, (68.0% vs 54.4%, p = 0.0013). Concomitant use of methotrexate was associated with greater adherence than those not using methotrexate (64.1% vs 54.9%, p = 0.0231). Sustained remission rates occurred in 114 patients achieving clinical remission at 1-year of etanercept treatment out of 249 patients eligible for ≥5-years of follow-up (remission rate: 45.8%). Remission was maintained up to 5 years in 55 out of 114 patients (48.2%). Patients with relapses (n = 39) had significantly longer disease duration than patients with sustained remission (p = 0.0288).
Conclusions: Etanercept is associated high rates of drug adherence and sustained remission. Data suggests that starting etanercept early and with methotrexate in younger patients is associated with greater drug adherence, and which enables sustained remission.
