Treatment patterns and medication adherence of patients with glaucoma in South Korea

Abstract

Background/aimsThis study aimed to investigate treatment patterns and medication adherence of glaucoma. It also identified key factors associated with non-adherence.MethodsIt was a cross-sectional, observational study. Patients who use eye-drops for ≤2 years were recruited at 15 eye clinics from March to November 2013. Data were collected through self-administered questionnaires and medical chart review. Medication adherence was evaluated using patients’ self-report on pill count and defined as patients’ administering drug for ≥80% of prescribed days. Medication adherence rate was calculated by dividing actual number of administration from total prescribed number of administration for 7 days. Patients whose self-reported prescription was different from total daily doses of physicians' prescription were considered as non-adherent.ResultsA total of 1050 patients included, and medication adherence rate was evaluated in 1046 patients whose verification of adherence was available. Of the total, 27.4% were non-adherent, and the medication adherence rates of the total, the adherent, and the non-adherent were 90.6±17.8%, 96.8±5.5% and 56.6±24.7%, respectively. The most commonly used medication was prostaglandin (PGA) alone and the second was combination of two-class (β-blocker and carbonic anhydrase inhibitor (CAI)) and three-class combination of PGA, β-blocker and CAI followed. In multivariate analysis, the risk of non-adherence was 1.466 times greater in males than in females (95% CI 1.106 to 1.943) and 1.328-fold greater as the daily number of administration was increased (95% CI 1.186 to 1.487).ConclusionApproximately, one-third of the patients were non-adherent, and males and increased daily number of administration were associated with non-adherence. It highlights that more systematic treatment strategies should be considered for better medication adherence, leading to effective glaucoma management.

Nanog Requires BRD4 to Maintain Murine Embryonic Stem Cell Pluripotency and Is Suppressed by Bromodomain Inhibitor JQ1 Together with Lefty1

“…Both proteins have been previously recognized as stemness markers in undifferentiated ESCs and in blastocysts. Moreover, Lefty1 and Lefty2 have been implicated in the maintenance of self-renewal and pluripotency of mouse ESCs and optimal expression of both genes appears to be critical for the balanced differentiation of ESCs into three germ layers [37]. In particular, Lefty1 knockdown in ESCs has been shown to result in enhanced phosphorylation of Smad2 and increased differentiation, which supports our own findings and suggests that JQ1-induced differentiation of ESCs may be mediated by Lefty1 downregulation as well as by Nanog.…”

Real‐world assessment of topical glaucoma medication persistence rates based on national pharmaceutical claim data in a defined population

“…The fear of blindness might improve those patients' persistence. We found that female glaucoma patients were more persistent with their treatment than males, which is supported by previous studies . A large number of studies have confirmed gender differences in health‐care behaviours, which may be one of the reasons why female patients tend to have better topical glaucoma medication persistence.…”

“…We found that female glaucoma patients were more persistent with their treatment than males, which is supported by previous studies. 47,48 A large number of studies have confirmed gender differences in health-care behaviours, 49 which may be one of the reasons why female patients tend to have better topical glaucoma medication persistence. In the present analysis, patients with hypertension were more persistent with their treatment while diabetic patients were less likely to continue their topical glaucoma medication treatment.…”

Adherence to Medical Treatment and Its Determinants Among Adult Saudi Glaucoma Patients in Riyadh City

“…Patients and their caregiver's cooperation in instilling timely eye drops and the spacing between the drops are crucial for the effective reduction of intraocular pressure (IOP) and by halting/delaying the progression of visual disabilities due to glaucoma. Periodic assessment and strict adherence to medical treatment have been found to be less than desired [4][5][6]. It is influenced by the severity of the disease, the duration of the ailment, the number of eye drops being used, the literacy level, and the cost of medication [7][8][9].…”