Adherence evaluation of endocrine treatment in breast cancer: methodological aspects

BMC Cancer

Anne S Oberguggenberger²  Monika Sztankay²  Beate Beer³  Birthe Schubert³  Verena Meraner²  Herbert Oberacher³  Georg Kemmler²  Johannes Giesinger²  Eva Gamper²  Barbara Sperner-Unterweger²  Christian Marth¹  Bernhard Holzner²  Michael Hubalek¹ 

[1] Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Innsbruck Medical University, Anichstraße 35, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria

[2] Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Innsbruck Medical University, Anichstraße 35, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria

[3] Institute of Legal Medicine, Innsbruck Medical University, Anichstraße 35, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria

关键词: Adherence;    Method;    Patient compliance;    Endocrine therapy;    Breast neoplasm;   

Others  :  1080136
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2407-12-474

 received in 2012-06-13, accepted in 2012-09-25,  发布年份 2012

【 摘 要 】

Background

Current studies on adherence to endocrine therapy in breast cancer patients suffer from methodological limitations due to a lack of well-validated methods for assessing adherence. There is no gold standard for measuring adherence. The aim of our study was to compare four different approaches for evaluating adherence to anastrozole therapy for breast cancer with regard to concordance between methods.

Methods

Outpatients with early breast cancer treated with anastrozole completed the multi-method assessment of adherence. We implemented a self-report scale (the Simplified Medication Adherence Questionnaire), physician- ratings, refill records and determination of anastrozole serum concentration.

Results

Comparison of the four approaches using Spearman rank correlation revealed poor concordance across all methods reflecting weak correlations of 0.2-0.4. Considering this data incomparability across methods, we still observed high adherence rates of 78%-98% across measures.

Conclusion

Our findings contribute to the growing body of knowledge on the impact that methodological aspects exert on the results of adherence measurement in breast cancer patients receiving endocrine treatment. Our findings suggest that the development and validation of instruments specific to patients receiving endocrine agents is imperative in order to arrive at a more accurate assessment and to subsequently obtain more precise estimates of adherence rates in this patient population.

【 授权许可】

   
2012 Oberguggenberger et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

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