Impact of access to treatment on patient‐reported outcomes among rheumatoid arthritis patients with tDMARDs and bDMARDS in two Latin‐American countries: A prospective observational study

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: A noninterventional prospective study was performed in Colombia and Peru. The aim was to describe the impact of access to treatment on Patient‐reported outcomes (PRO) in patients with Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) after failure to conventional disease‐modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) in real‐life conditions. METHODS: The impact of access to treatment was measured by access barriers, time to supply (TtS) and interruption evaluating their effect in changes of PROs between baseline and 6‐month follow‐up between February 2017 and November 2019. The association of access to care with disease activity, functional status, health‐related quality of life was assessed using bivariate and multivariable analysis. Results are expressed in least mean difference; TtS in mean number of days for delivery of treatment at baseline. Variability measures were standard deviation and standard error. RESULTS: One hundred seventy patients were recruited, 70 treated with tofacitinib and 100 with biological DMARDs. Thirty‐nine patients reported access barriers. The mean of TtS was 23 ± 38.83 days. The difference from baseline to 6‐month visit in PROs were affected by access barriers and interruptions. There was not statistically significant difference in the of PRO's score among visits in patients that reported delay of supply of more than 23 days compared to patients with less days of delay. CONCLUSION: This study suggested the access to treatment can affect the response to the treatment at 6 months of follow‐up. There seems to be no effect in the PROs for delay of TtS during the studied period.