The Cost-Effectiveness of and Adherence to Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drug (DMARD) Therapy in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in Uttarakhand, India

Objective This study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the cost-effectiveness of and adherence to treatment in patients on disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) therapy for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Uttarakhand, India. Methodology This prospective observational study was conducted on 150 rheumatoid arthritis patients presenting to the Rheumatology Outpatient Department (OPD) receiving DMARD therapy (approval number AIIMS/IEC/18/160). The patients were followed up for an average of 10.7 weeks and received drugs in four regimens with methotrexate (MTX) (Regimen 1) having the least contribution with a mean of 46.05 Rs, methotrexate + hydroxychloroquine (MTX + HCQ) (Regimen 2) with 174.15 Rs, methotrexate + hydroxychloroquine + leflunomide (MTX + HCQ + Lef) (Regimen 3) with Rs 371.70, and methotrexate + hydroxychloroquine + leflunomide + biological DMARD adalimumab (MTX + HCQ + Lef + bDMARD adalimumab) (Regimen 4) with 17,349.4 Rs. The cost of drug therapy was assessed by calculating the cost of therapy per month for each patient, and adherence was assessed using the Morisky-Green-Levine Scale (MGLS) at the follow-up visit. Results The overall mean cost of DMARD treatment was 205.81 Rs. The overall DMARD therapy cost-effectiveness was Rs 878.14 for a unit change of Disease Activity Score (DAS28). The most cost-effective treatment came out to be Regimen 1 with the least cost of 290.9 Rs for a unit change of DAS28, and the least cost-effective was Regimen 4 with 65,661.8 Rs for a unit change of DAS28. At follow-up, among all subjects of the study, 49 (32.7%) subjects showed high adherence, 71 (47.3%) subjects showed medium adherence, and 30 (20%) subjects showed low adherence. Accordingly, the maximum number of participants fell in the category of medium adherence, i.e., 71 (47.4%). Conclusion Our study concluded that the cost burden varied according to the number of DMARDs being given to the patient. The double-drug therapy of methotrexate + hydroxychloroquine had a maximum “high adherence.” On a whole, the majority of patients had “medium adherence” to therapy.