Adherence to 6-Mercaptopurine in children and adolescents with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Mervat Alsous, Rana Abu Farha, Eman Alefishat, Suha Al Omar, Deema Momani, Alia Gharabli, James McElnay, Robert Horne and Rawad Rihani

PLOS ONE, 2017, vol. 12, issue 9, 1-12

Abstract: Objective: Studies on children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) reported non-adherence in 2–54% of cases. The primary objective of this study was to assess rates of adherence to 6-MP using two different methods in children and adolescents with ALL. Secondary aim was to identify factors that influence adherence to 6-MP in children with ALL. Methods: All eligible children with ALL who are (≤ 19) years old and receive 6-MP therapy for at least 1 month were approached to participate in the study. A total of 52 children with ALL and their primary caregivers were recruited. Adherence measures included an objective method (measuring 6-MP metabolites in packed Red Blood Cells (RBCs)) and a subjective method (using parent and child self-report via the Medication Adherence Report Scale; MARS; Adherence was defined as 90% or greater). Results: Rates of adherence varied across the measurement methods. Packed RBCs sample analysis indicated forty-four patients (84.6%) to be adherent. Using the MARS questionnaires, a total of 49 children (94.2%) were classified as being adherent according to the parental MARS questionnaire scores, while all the 15 children (100%) who answered the MARS (child) questionnaire were classified as adherent. Overall adherence rate was 80.8% within the studied population. Conclusion: MARS scale was shown to overestimate adherence compared to measurement of 6-MP metabolites in the blood. A combination of both methods led to increased detection of non-adherence to thiopurine in children with ALL.

Date: 2017
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0183119

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0183119

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