Effects of medication adherence on disease activity in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a systematic review and...

The disease activity of Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients is often measured, which can could be related to medication adherence. Yet, there is no systematic inventory of studies comparing adherents and non-adherent patients in terms of disease activity. The systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to reveal the effect of medication adherence on disease activity in patients with COPD. For the present meta-analysis, studies comparing medication adherence in adherents and non-adherent patients were screened and included. Results were expressed as mean difference (MD) and 95% CI. A total of eleven identified studies matched the inclusion criteria, reporting on a total of 6,346 COPD patients in the analysis. The number of exacerbations in COPD patients over a year was significantly lower in non-adherent patients than in adherent subjects (MD = 0.69, 95% CI [0.36,1.01], P < 0.0001). Similarly, a significant difference was observed between medication-adherent and non-adherent groups in FEV₁ (MD = -166.47, 95% CI [-255.03, -77.92], P= 0.0002). Interestingly, the results of the meta-analysis showed no significant difference between medication-adherent and non-adherent patients in SGRQ (MD = -0.85, 95% CI [-4.98, 3.27], P= 0.68), CAT (MD = -0.83, 95% CI [-1.78, 0.13], P= 0.09), and FEV₁% (MD = -3.33, 95% CI [-6.83, 0.17], P= 0.06).The studies performed suggested that clinical medical staff should pay attention to the medication behavior of COPD patients and effectively improve the medication adherence of patients.