Frontiers in Endocrinology | |
Evaluating the TUITEK® patient support program in supporting caregivers of children diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency in Argentina | |
Endocrinology | |
Selina Graham1  Jonathan Reston1  Amrit Jheeta1  Ekaterina Koledova2  Aria Reza Assefi3  Matías Debicki3  Judit Gonzalez3  María Lourdes Crespo3  | |
[1] Atlantis Healthcare, London, United Kingdom;Global Medical Affairs Cardiometabolic and Endocrinology, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany;Medical Department, Merck S.A. (an affiliate of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany), Buenos Aires, Argentina; | |
关键词: adherence; caregiver; electronic injection device; growth disorders; pediatric; patient support program; recombinant human growth hormone treatment; short stature; | |
DOI : 10.3389/fendo.2023.1129385 | |
received in 2022-12-21, accepted in 2023-03-28, 发布年份 2023 | |
来源: Frontiers | |
【 摘 要 】
IntroductionThe appropriate use of recombinant human growth hormone (r-hGH) treatment provides an opportunity to improve growth outcomes among pediatric patients with growth hormone deficiency (GHD). However, a major challenge in clinical practice is to adequately recognize and address factors that negatively affect treatment adherence. TUITEK® patient support program (PSP) was designed to help caregivers of children diagnosed with GHD to personalize the care pathway, improve adherence, and achieve better outcomes. Effectiveness of TUITEK® PSP has been demonstrated previously in a smaller sample (n = 31) in Taiwanese population. Here, we present the results from Argentina.MethodsTUITEK® PSP was piloted among 76 caregivers of children with GHD administering r-hGH using easypod™ (Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany) auto-injector device in Argentina. Based on TUITEK® personalization questionnaire, caregivers were assigned to high- and low-risk groups across four categories that may influence adherence, including disease and treatment coherence (DTC), self-administration (SA), treatment-related anxiety (TRA), and emotional burden (EB). The caregivers who were included in atleast one high-risk group had the provision of telephone calls with a nurse practitioner every 2 weeks for 3 months. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was employed to assess changes in questionnaire-based scoring patterns between baseline and follow-up evaluations.ResultsStatistically significant changes (p < 0.05) in questionnaire scores between baseline and follow-up evaluations were observed across the four categories. The mean/median DTC (n = 11) and SA (n = 23) scores changed from 2.45/3 and 2.17/2, respectively, to 4/4, with all the caregivers moving to low-risk group following program completion (100%) for both categories. The mean/median TRA score (n = 40) changed from 3.58/3 to 2.5/2 and 67.5% of patients (27/40) moved to low-risk group. The mean/median EB score (n = 32) changed from 3.69/3 to 3.13/3 however, none of the caregivers moved to low-risk group (0%).ConclusionTUITEK® PSP is a simple, practical, and time-efficient interventional tool that can be used to address key adherence-related issues among caregivers of children with GHD and provide personalized adherence support. Our findings demonstrate that TUITEK® PSP has the potential to improve treatment adherence and self-management, thereby improving growth outcomes in Argentina.
【 授权许可】
Unknown
Copyright © 2023 Assefi, Graham, Crespo, Debicki, Reston, Gonzalez, Jheeta and Koledova
【 预 览 】
Files | Size | Format | View |
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RO202310107086646ZK.pdf | 792KB | download |