Adherence to systemic therapies for immune-mediated inflammatory diseases in Lebanon: a physicians’ survey from three medical specialties

Figures & data

Figure 1 Definition of adherence according to surveyed physicians.

Figure 2 Identified factors influencing adherence.

Figure 3 Survey combined results.

Abbreviation: IBD, inflammatory bowel disease.

Table 1 Key challenges and actions for treatment adherence

Key challenges	Key actions
Limited education at three levels (patient–physician–nurse)	Empower patient advocacy groups
	Nurse training programs within institutions/hospitals
Suboptimal physician–patient relation/communication	Shared decision making between patients and physicians to improve acceptance, compliance and persistence
Physicians beliefs	Develop and support IMID interest group through respective medical societies
Patients’ beliefs/concerns about therapy	Develop and distribute patient educational material and simple visual tools
	Improve communication with physician and enhance nursing support and access
Lack of assessment of adherence/assessment tools	Development of a simple questionnaire to identify major gaps leading to nonadherence
	Encourage related psychological and behavioral research
Market access/reimbursement issues	Patient advocacy groups to lobby third-party payers
Unintentional nonadherence	Reminders, mobile applications with push notifications, partner and/or family involvement

Abbreviation: IMID, immune-mediated inflammatory diseases.