Department of Rheumatology, School of Medicine, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2014 Jul-Aug;32(4):477-83. Epub 2014 Jun 6.
Unmet needs of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients regarding physician/patient communication, treatment preferences and quality of life issues were investigated in a Turkish survey study.
The study was conducted with the contribution of 33 rheumatologists, and included 519 RA patients. The study population included patients who had been on biologic therapy for >6 months and were still receiving biologic therapy (BT group), and those who were biologic naive, but found eligible for biologic treatment (NBT group). Of the RA patients, 35.5% initially had a visit to an internal disease specialist, 25.5% to a physical therapy and rehabilitation specialist, and 12.2% to a rheumatology specialist for their RA complaints. The diagnosis of RA was made by a rheumatologist in 48.2% of patients.
The majority of RA patients (86.3%) visit their doctor within 15-week intervals. Most of the physician-patient communication focused on disease symptoms (99.0%) and impact of the disease on quality of life (61.8%). The proportion of RA patients who perceived their health status as good/very good/excellent was higher in the BT group than in the NBT group (74.3% vs. 51.5%, p<0.001). However, of those RA patients in the NBT group, only 24.8% have been recommended to start a biologic treatment by their doctors. With respect to dose frequency options, once-monthly injections were preferred (80%) to a bi-weekly injection schedule (8%).
In conclusion, RA patients receiving biologic therapy reported higher rates of improved symptoms and better quality of life and seemed to be more satisfied with their treatment in our study.
在一项土耳其调查研究中，调查了类风湿关节炎 (RA) 患者在医患沟通、治疗偏好和生活质量问题方面的未满足需求。
该研究由 33 名风湿病专家参与，共纳入 519 名 RA 患者。研究人群包括接受生物治疗 >6 个月且仍在接受生物治疗的患者（BT 组），以及那些尚未接受生物治疗但符合生物治疗条件的患者（NBT 组）。在 RA 患者中，35.5%最初因 RA 症状就诊于内科专家，25.5%就诊于物理治疗和康复专家，12.2%就诊于风湿病专家。48.2%的患者由风湿病专家确诊为 RA。
大多数 RA 患者（86.3%）在 15 周的间隔内就诊医生。大多数医患沟通都集中在疾病症状（99.0%）和疾病对生活质量的影响（61.8%）上。BT 组患者中认为自己健康状况良好/非常好/极好的比例高于 NBT 组（74.3% vs. 51.5%，p<0.001）。然而，在 NBT 组的 RA 患者中，只有 24.8%的患者被医生建议开始接受生物治疗。在剂量频率选择方面，患者更倾向于每月一次的注射（80%）而不是每两周一次的注射方案（8%）。
总之，在我们的研究中，接受生物治疗的 RA 患者报告症状改善率和生活质量改善率更高，并且似乎对治疗更满意。
