Non-adherence to treatment in inflammatory bowel disease in Czech Republic

Objective: To assess overall non-adherence to the treatment among patients with Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). Patients and methods: 396 inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients were enrolled in the study (200 mates, 196 females, 210 CD, 186 UC) and fulfilled the questionnaire to assess their non-adherent behaviour during the treatment. The data was analysed using factor analysis. Results: Overall intentional non-adherence was reported by 32% of patients. A 12% of patients reported they at least once discontinued the treatment. Voluntary dose reducing was reported by 19% of patients. An 11% of patients occasionally non-refill the medication in time. There were no differences in intentional adherence between mates and females, disease type, previous bowel surgery, marital, smoking and non-smoking statuses. A 42% of patients reported unintentional non-adherence. Factor analysis proved non-adherent patients are more likely to have a higher activity of the disease (tau=0.109, p=0.008). Conclusions: The overall intentional non-adherence is relatively high among IBD patients and a gastroenterologist's attention should be focused on it. Our results stimulate discussion how to improve education of the patients with inflammatory bowel disease and accent importance of the maintenance therapy to them. (C) 2007 European Crohn's and Colitis Organisation. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.