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Perception to Hydroxyurea Therapy in Patients with Sickle Cell Disease: Report from 3 Centers
BACKGROUND: Hydroxyurea (HU) is an hemoglobin F inducing agent used in the treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD). AIM: The aim of this study is to determine the perception of HU by people living with SCD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A pretested questionnaire was self-administered to known cases of SCD a...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Wolters Kluwer - Medknow
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8378460/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34213480 http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/aam.aam_36_20 |
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author | Korubo, Kaladada I. Onodingene, Nkemsinachi Maryanne Okoye, Helen Chioma Omunakwe, Hannah E. |
author_facet | Korubo, Kaladada I. Onodingene, Nkemsinachi Maryanne Okoye, Helen Chioma Omunakwe, Hannah E. |
author_sort | Korubo, Kaladada I. |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Hydroxyurea (HU) is an hemoglobin F inducing agent used in the treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD). AIM: The aim of this study is to determine the perception of HU by people living with SCD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A pretested questionnaire was self-administered to known cases of SCD attending pediatrics and adult hematology clinics in three participating centers. Mothers of children <18 years responded on their behalf. RESULTS: There were 101 responders, 49 (48.5%) males and 52 (51.5%) females, of which 24 (23.8%) were children <18 years and 77 (76.2%) were adults. The majority (n = 73, 72.3%) knew their phenotype. Up to 63 (62.4%) had crises in the past 3 months. Only 35 (34.7%) had heard of HU, many through their doctor (n = 16, 45.7%), 8 (22.9%) through online resources, and 7 (20%) from friends. Only 12 (11.9%) had been exposed to HU therapy, of which 5 (41.7%) had discontinued therapy mostly due to side effects (n = 2, 40%). The seven patients (58.3%) on continuous HU therapy for a duration of 6 months to over 5 years, all reported reduced hospital admissions and frequency of crises as benefits of the drug, whereas 4 (57.1%) had stopped requiring blood transfusion since starting therapy. Of those who had never taken HU, 53 (52.5%) believed that HU should be used in treating SCD and majority (n = 32, 60.4%) would want to be commenced on the drug. However, 8 (15.1%) would decline therapy (mostly due to perceived associated side effects; n = 4; 50%). Six (11.3%) were unsure if they would want the drug and 7 (13.2%) would have to discuss the decision first with their family. There were 8 (8.9%) responders who did not think HU will be beneficial in SCD and would decline treatment, while 26 (29.2%) were unsure of both the benefits of the drug or of commencing therapy. CONCLUSION: The findings from this study suggest that HU is beneficial for patients with SCD; however, the awareness of this medication among SCD patients is still low in our environment. Some SCD patients would decline the use of HU due to perceived side effects. We recommend that more awareness on HU be created and coordinated multi-center studies on the efficacy of HU in the Nigerian population be carried out. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8378460 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Wolters Kluwer - Medknow |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-83784602021-09-01 Perception to Hydroxyurea Therapy in Patients with Sickle Cell Disease: Report from 3 Centers Korubo, Kaladada I. Onodingene, Nkemsinachi Maryanne Okoye, Helen Chioma Omunakwe, Hannah E. Ann Afr Med Original Article BACKGROUND: Hydroxyurea (HU) is an hemoglobin F inducing agent used in the treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD). AIM: The aim of this study is to determine the perception of HU by people living with SCD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A pretested questionnaire was self-administered to known cases of SCD attending pediatrics and adult hematology clinics in three participating centers. Mothers of children <18 years responded on their behalf. RESULTS: There were 101 responders, 49 (48.5%) males and 52 (51.5%) females, of which 24 (23.8%) were children <18 years and 77 (76.2%) were adults. The majority (n = 73, 72.3%) knew their phenotype. Up to 63 (62.4%) had crises in the past 3 months. Only 35 (34.7%) had heard of HU, many through their doctor (n = 16, 45.7%), 8 (22.9%) through online resources, and 7 (20%) from friends. Only 12 (11.9%) had been exposed to HU therapy, of which 5 (41.7%) had discontinued therapy mostly due to side effects (n = 2, 40%). The seven patients (58.3%) on continuous HU therapy for a duration of 6 months to over 5 years, all reported reduced hospital admissions and frequency of crises as benefits of the drug, whereas 4 (57.1%) had stopped requiring blood transfusion since starting therapy. Of those who had never taken HU, 53 (52.5%) believed that HU should be used in treating SCD and majority (n = 32, 60.4%) would want to be commenced on the drug. However, 8 (15.1%) would decline therapy (mostly due to perceived associated side effects; n = 4; 50%). Six (11.3%) were unsure if they would want the drug and 7 (13.2%) would have to discuss the decision first with their family. There were 8 (8.9%) responders who did not think HU will be beneficial in SCD and would decline treatment, while 26 (29.2%) were unsure of both the benefits of the drug or of commencing therapy. CONCLUSION: The findings from this study suggest that HU is beneficial for patients with SCD; however, the awareness of this medication among SCD patients is still low in our environment. Some SCD patients would decline the use of HU due to perceived side effects. We recommend that more awareness on HU be created and coordinated multi-center studies on the efficacy of HU in the Nigerian population be carried out. Wolters Kluwer - Medknow 2021 2021-06-30 /pmc/articles/PMC8378460/ /pubmed/34213480 http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/aam.aam_36_20 Text en Copyright: © 2021 Annals of African Medicine https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. |
spellingShingle | Original Article Korubo, Kaladada I. Onodingene, Nkemsinachi Maryanne Okoye, Helen Chioma Omunakwe, Hannah E. Perception to Hydroxyurea Therapy in Patients with Sickle Cell Disease: Report from 3 Centers |
title | Perception to Hydroxyurea Therapy in Patients with Sickle Cell Disease: Report from 3 Centers |
title_full | Perception to Hydroxyurea Therapy in Patients with Sickle Cell Disease: Report from 3 Centers |
title_fullStr | Perception to Hydroxyurea Therapy in Patients with Sickle Cell Disease: Report from 3 Centers |
title_full_unstemmed | Perception to Hydroxyurea Therapy in Patients with Sickle Cell Disease: Report from 3 Centers |
title_short | Perception to Hydroxyurea Therapy in Patients with Sickle Cell Disease: Report from 3 Centers |
title_sort | perception to hydroxyurea therapy in patients with sickle cell disease: report from 3 centers |
topic | Original Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8378460/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34213480 http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/aam.aam_36_20 |
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