Background
The 5-item Compliance Questionnaire for Rheumatology (CQR5) allows the identification of patients likely be high adherers (HA) to anti-rheumatic treatment (i.e. taking ≥80% of their medications correctly), or “low” adherers (LA). The objective of the entire study was to validate an Italian version of I-CQR5 in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Furthermore, a cross-sectional analysis was conducted to investigate what factors are associated with high treatment adherence.
Methods
RA patients (with disease duration >1 year, undergoing treatment with ≥1 self-administered biological disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) or conventional synthetic DMARDs (csDMARDs), willing and capable of completing the questionnaire unaided) were enrolled in the study. The cross-cultural adaptation into Italian and validation of I-CQR5 followed standardized guidelines. The I-CQR5 was completed by patients on one occasion. Data were subjected to Partial Credit model Parametrisation (PCM) to assess the construct validity and reliability of I-CQR5. Patients who gave consent to retrieve their clinical data were included in the analysis of factors associated with high adherence to anti-rheumatic treatment. Factors included were demographic and social characteristics of the patients, and clinical and treatment information. Factors achieving a p