Lower Adherence to Clotting Factor Replacement Therapy in Patients with Haemophilia Associated with More Depressive Symptoms: Two Centers Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the association of depressive symptoms, assessed with a longer measure designed and validated for diagnosing or screening for depression, with medication adherence levels in a combined sample from Croatia and Slovenia. Participants in the study were adult patients with haemophilia receiving prophylaxis or on demand treatment (N = 109). Their age was between 18 and 73 years (M = 43.86, SD = 14.89). Self-reported medication adherence (implementation phase) was measured with VERITAS-Pro and VERITAS-PRN scales, while depressive symptoms were measured with BDI-II. Comparison of adherence scores using t-test indicated that participants using on-demand treatment had worse total adherence score as well as time, dose, plan and communicate subscale scores than participants using prophylaxis. In hierarchical regression analyses depressive symptoms were significant predictor for time subscale and the total score after controlling for sociodemographic and clinical variables.