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Creation of a tool to assess adherence to treatments for acne
Henry Pawin1, Claire Beylot, Martine Chivot
1Cabinet privé, Paris, France.
Background:
Acne is a disorder in which adherence has a major impact on treatment outcome.
Objective:
To create an easy-to-use tool to assess treatment adherence, based on a questionnaire that can be used on a daily basis by dermatologists.
Methods:
First, we evaluated adherence by comparing responses to a self-administered questionnaire with the dermatologist's prescription. Second, concordance was assessed between adherence and each question of a dermatologist-directed questionnaire (DDQ) administered during the consultation. Third, DDQ questions were combined to construct a mini-questionnaire, and these combinations were tested to maximize specificity.
Results:
The study included 246 patients, who were prescribed topical treatment alone, combined treatment (excluding oral isotretinoin) or oral isotretinoin alone. The mini-questionnaires for oral and topical treatments had 89% specificity for detecting poor adherence. An inappropriate answer to one question classified the patient as a probable poor compliance.
Conclusions:
Our mini-questionnaires provide dermatologists with specific tools to rapidly identify poor compliance.
