The adherence to the therapy in inflammatory bowel disease: beyond the number of the tablets

Objectives: The therapy of the inflammatory bowel diseases is quite complex. A partial compliance increases the relapse probability and the health expenditure. The aim of the study is to correctly study the adherence to the therapy in a single centre eliminating the bias of a different relationship of trust with different doctors.

Materials and methods: We conducted a blind prospective study on the adherence evaluated for mesalazine.

Results: Three hundred and seventy-six patients were included in the final analysis. Of the patients, 57.4% never missed a single dose of mesalazine, 29.3% missed one or two doses, 7.4% missed three to four doses, 5.9% missed more than five doses. A greater adherence among males (p = .015) and, in ulcerative colitis, among the group with a disease duration of <2 years compared to the one with a disease duration between 2 and 5 years (p = .04) were found. In Crohn’s diseases, among the patients who had never undergone to surgical interventions, the adherence was 49.6%, compared to 51.9% among patients who underwent to one surgical resection and 78.6% among patients underwent to multiple surgical resections (p = .001).

Conclusions: The factors influencing the adherence to the therapy are only partly related to the prescribed therapy, but also to factors affecting the patient life: to increase the adherence rate it would be necessary not only interventions on the posology but also the psychological support to the patient at the time of the visit.