Li L, et al. – This systematic review was conducted to assess the impact of medication adherence on disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Accumulated evidence represented that RA patients with higher medication adherence had lower disease activity.

Methods

• A systematic search was performed in major electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, CNKI, VIP and Wan fang) to identify studies reporting medication adherence and disease activity in RA patients.
• Results were expressed as mean difference (MD) and 95% CI.

Results

• 7 identified studies matched the inclusion criteria, reporting on a total of 1,963 adult RA patients in the analysis.
• Findings showed that the total score of DAS–28 was significantly lower in adherent patients than in nonadherent subjects (MD =–0.42, 95% CI [–0.80, –0.03], P=0.03).
• A significant difference was observed between medication adherent and nonadherent groups in erythrocyte sedimentation rate (MD =–7.39, 95% CI [–11.69, –3.08], P<0.01) and tender joint count (MD =–1.29, 95% CI [–2.51, –0.06], P=0.04). 
• Investigations displayed no significant difference between medication adherent and nonadherent patients in swollen joint count (MD =–0.16, 95% CI [–2.13, 1.80], P=0.87), visual analog scale (MD =1.41, 95% CI [–3.68, 6.50], P=0.59) and C–reactive protein (MD =0.35, 95% CI [–0.64, 1.34], P=0.49).