(Current Challenges and Updates in Pharmacy Education and Research)

Assessment of medication related burden among a sample of Iraqi patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and its relation with disease activity

Not scheduled

20m

كلية الصيدلة

Poster exhibition (in-person) Conference Trak Two

Speaker

Dheyaa Kadhim (College of Pharmacy, University of Baghdad,)

Description

Introduction:
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease with high morbidity and disability.

Objective:
The aim of the current study was to assess the perceived medication related burden among a sample of Iraqi patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and to determine its possible association with disease activity.

Patients and method:
The current study was a cross-sectional carried out on an already diagnosed SLE patients who attended to Baghdad Teaching Hospital/Medical City/Rheumatology department from September 2021 to January 2022. Medication-related burden was measured using the Living with Medicines Questionnaire (LMQ).

Results:
The mean LMQ score (117.30 ± 18.37) (Range: 52-163). The findings showed that the majority of the participants experienced moderate degree of burden (69.87%) , followed by minimum burden (19.87%), high burden (7.69%), and no burden at all (2.56%) with no patient experienced extremely high burden (0.0 %).
Two LMQ themes had the lowest mean of burden scores (below the average): Theme-1 [relationships with health care professionals (HCPs)] and theme-5 (effectiveness of prescribed medications). In other words, the patients had good relationships with their HCPs and good belief in their medication effectiveness which reduced their medicine burden in these two themes. On the other hand, three themes had the highest mean of burden scores: Theme-2 (practical difficulties in using medicines), Theme-6 (concerns about medicines use) and Theme-7 (impact of using medicines on daily life). In other words, the patients had relatively high difficulties in using medicines, had concerns about medicines use and their medicines impact their daily life.

Conclusion:
A considerable proportion of the SLE patients in this study have reported experiencing medication-related burden. Healthcare providers should adopt strategies to address this burden especially among those with low-income.