Postgrad Med. 2025 Oct 4. doi: 10.1080/00325481.2025.2571393. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is the most common monogenic autoinflammatory disease for which colchicine is regularly used every day. Health literacy (HL) is the ability of individuals to acquire, understand and use health information. The aim of this study was to evaluate medication adherence and HL levels in adolescents with FMF and to investigate the impact of HL on colchicine adherence.
METHODS: A cross-sectional, prospective study was conducted with FMF patients aged 12-18 years at the Pediatric Rheumatology Department. Medication adherence was measured using the Medication Adherence Scale in FMF Patients, with scores ≥60 indicating adherence. HL was assessed using the Health Literacy Scale for School-Age Children, categorizing scores as low (10-25), moderate (26-35), or high (36-40).
RESULTS: Among 87 FMF patients, 53 (60.9%) were female. The mean age of the patients was 14.89 ± 1.69 years. HL levels were moderate in 64 (73.6%), high in 17 (19.5%) and low in 6 (6.9%) patients. Patients were divided into 2 groups according to medication adherence. Nineteen (21.8%) patients were colchicine adherent and 68 (78.2%) were colchicine non-adherent. A significant difference was observed between the groups in terms of HL levels (p < 0.05). None of the patients with low HL were adherent to colchicine treatment. Higher HL levels were associated with increased medication adherence (p < 0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between adherent and non-adherent patients in terms of gender, age, educational status, reminder methods, school absenteeism, frequency attacks at the last year, colchicine dose, number of colchicine tablets per day (p > 0.05).
CONCLUSION: Adolescents with FMF were generally found to have moderate levels of HL. Colchicine adherence was found to be higher as HL levels increased.
PMID:41045486 | DOI:10.1080/00325481.2025.2571393
