RESEARCH ARTICLE


Agreement of Turkish Physiatrists with the Assessment in Spondyloarthritis International Society and the European League Against Rheumatism Recommendations for the Management of Ankylosing Spondylitis and Rheumatoid Arthritis



Salih Ozgocmen*, 1, Ozgur Akgul 1, Aysen Akıncı 2, Sebnem Ataman 3, Murat Birtane 4, Hatice Bodur 5, Rezan Günaydın 6, Ömer Kuru 7, Aylin Rezvani 8, Omer Faruk Şendur 9, Kazım Şenel 10, Tiraje Tuncer 11
1 Division of Rheumatology, Department of PMR, Erciyes University, Faculty of Medicine, Gevher Nesibe Hospital, Kayseri Turkey
2 Department of PMR, Hacettepe University, Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey
3 Division of Rheumatology, Department of PMR, Ankara University, Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey
4 Department of PMR, Trakya University, Faculty of Medicine, Edirne, Turkey
5 Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinic, Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
6 Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinic, Izmir Bozyaka Training and Research Hospital, Izmir, Turkey
7 Department of PMR, Ondokuzmayis University, Faculty of Medicine, Samsun, Turkey
8 Department of PMR, Bezmialem Vakif University, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey
9 Department of PMR, Adnan Menderes University, Faculty of Medicine, Aydin, Turkey
10 Department of PMR, Ataturk University, Faculty of Medicine, Erzurum, Turkey
11 Division of Rheumatology, Department of PMR, Akdeniz University, Faculty of Medicine, Antalya, Turkey


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Creative Commons License
© Ozgocmen et al.; Licensee Bentham Open.

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Division of Rheumatology, Erciyes University, Gevher Nesibe Hospital, 38039, Kayseri Turkey; Tel: 0090352 4374901; Fax: 00 90 352 2353605; E-mail: sozgocmen@hotmail.com


Abstract

Background:

New developments in the field of targeted therapies or biologic agents led more effective management of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Recommendations for the management of rheumatic diseases propose to reduce inappropriate use of medications, minimize variations among countries, and enable cost-effective use of health care resources.

Objective:

The aim this study was to evaluate conceptual agreement of ASsessment in SpondyloArthritis International Society (ASAS) and the EUropean League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) recommendations for the management of AS and EULAR recommendations for RA and to assess the rate of application among Turkish physiatrists in daily clinical practice.

Methods:

An online survey link has been sent to 1756 Turkish physiatrists with e-mails asking to rate agreement on 11-item ASAS/EULAR AS recommendations and 15-item EULAR RA recommendations with synthetic and biological disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs. Also barriers and difficulties for using biologic agents were assessed.

Results:

Three hundred nine physiatrists (17.5%) completed the survey. The conceptual agreement with both recommendations was very high (Level of agreement; mean 8.35±0.82 and 8.90± 0.67 for RA and AS recommendations, respectively), and the self-declared application of overall recommendations in the clinical practice was also high for both RA and AS (72.42% and 75.71%, respectively).

Conclusion:

Turkish physiatrists are in good conceptual agreement with the evidence-based recommendations for the management of AS and RA. These efforts may serve to disseminate the knowledge and increase the current awareness among physicians who serve to these patients and also implementation of these recommendations is expected to increase as well.

Keywords: Rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, recommendations, agreement, physiatrist..