Impact of an Education Program for Caregivers of Patients with Alzheimer's Disease on Treatment Discontinuation and Compliance in Korea

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Reportedly 30–50% of patients being treated for chronic illnesses do not adhere to their medication regimen. We assessed the impact of a nurse-led education program for caregivers of Korean de novo Alzheimer's disease patients who had newly been prescribed donepezil. METHODS: This multicenter study analyzed 93 participants in a caregiver education group and 92 participants in a caregiver no-education group. At every visit up to the end of the study (1 year), caregivers in the education group were given educational brochures regarding Alzheimer's disease and the efficacy and adverse events of donepezil treatment. The primary endpoint was the discontinuation rate of donepezil treatment during the 1-year observation period. The secondary endpoints included the effect of education on compliance with donepezil treatment assessed at each visit using a clinician rating scale (CRS) and visual analog scale (VAS), and changes from baseline in cognitive assessment tests. RESULTS: The donepezil discontinuation rates at 1 year were 5.38% (5/93) and 6.52% (6/92) in the caregiver education and no-education groups, respectively (p=0.742). No significant between-group differences in donepezil compliance rates on the CRS and VAS were observed, but significant changes were observed in some cognitive tests from baseline to the end of the study. CONCLUSIONS: Caregiver education had no significant effect on treatment discontinuation, but this may have been due to the low severity of cognitive impairment among the included population at baseline. In addition, the low discontinuation rates meant that no significant difference in treatment compliance was observed.