High treatment adherence, satisfaction, motivation, and health-related quality of life with fingolimod in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis - results from a 24-month, multicenter, open-label Danish study

Karen Schreiber; Matthias Kant; Claudia Pfleger; Henrik Boye Jensen; Ole Oesterberg; Anne Rieper Hald; Frederik K Nielsen; Sune Rubak

doi:10.2147/PPA.S166278

High treatment adherence, satisfaction, motivation, and health-related quality of life with fingolimod in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis - results from a 24-month, multicenter, open-label Danish study

Patient Prefer Adherence. 2018 Jun 29:12:1139-1150. doi: 10.2147/PPA.S166278. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Karen Schreiber¹, Matthias Kant², Claudia Pfleger³, Henrik Boye Jensen⁴, Ole Oesterberg⁵, Anne Rieper Hald⁵, Frederik K Nielsen⁵, Sune Rubak⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark.
² Department of Neurology, Hospital of Southern Jutland, Soenderborg, Denmark.
³ Department of Neurology, Aalborg University Hospital, Denmark.
⁴ Department of Neurology, Kolding Hospital, Kolding, Denmark.
⁵ Novartis Pharmaceutical, Copenhagen, Denmark, ole.oesterberg@novartis.com.
⁶ Department of Child and Adolescent Health, Aarhus University Hospital Skejby, Aarhus Denmark.

Abstract

Purpose: Treatment adherence is a prerequisite for treatment success and therefore an important consideration to assure that therapeutic goals are achieved both from a patient point of view and for optimal health care resource utilization. Published data on treatment adherence with fingolimod (Gilenya^®) are limited. Therefore, this study investigated treatment adherence in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) treated with fingolimod in Denmark.

Patients and methods: This was a 24-month, multicenter, open-label study, investigating treatment adherence, satisfaction, motivation, and health-related quality of life (QoL) in RRMS patients treated with fingolimod. In addition, the effect of a motivational interview support program on these measures was evaluated. Treatment adherence was assessed by pill count. Treatment satisfaction, motivation, and QoL were assessed by patient-reported outcomes (PROs).

Results: A total of 195 patients were enrolled in the study. A very high treatment adherence was observed during the entire study with no statistically significant difference between study visits before (99%) and after (97%) the motivational interview. In accordance, a high level of treatment satisfaction was found in the Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication 9, which was scored high throughout the study with the highest scores seen for the convenience domain (ranging from 94.51 to 95.78). Furthermore, additional PROs demonstrated a high health-related QoL, a self-determined form of motivation for taking medication, and a patient perception of an autonomy supportive approach provided by the health care provider, at all study visits.

Conclusion: High levels of treatment adherence, satisfaction, motivation, and QoL were observed in Danish RRMS patients treated with fingolimod. As these positive measures were observed at all study visits and throughout the study, no effect of the motivational interview support program was found.

Keywords: Gilenya®; Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication; motivational interview; multiple sclerosis; quality of life; treatment adherence.