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. 2024 Dec 23:17:11795441241308876.
doi: 10.1177/11795441241308876. eCollection 2024.

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Regarding Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs and Corticosteroids Use Among Patients With Chronic Rheumatology Condition: A Cross-Sectional Study From Vietnam

Hoa Thi Nhu Nguyen  1   2 , Quan Manh Nguyen  3   4 , Khuyen Thi Kim Ha  5 , Quynh Thi Nhu Le  6 , Binh Hai Bui  2   7
Affiliations

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Regarding Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs and Corticosteroids Use Among Patients With Chronic Rheumatology Condition: A Cross-Sectional Study From Vietnam

Hoa Thi Nhu Nguyen et al. Clin Med Insights Arthritis Musculoskelet Disord. .

Abstract

Objectives: To identify gaps in knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding the use of corticosteroids and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) among patients with chronic rheumatic diseases.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a questionnaire including 12 knowledge questions, 13 attitude assessment statements, 5 barrier assessment statements, and 7 practical scenarios. We counted the total numbers of correct answers in knowledge, positive attitudes, barriers, and appropriate practices and fitted using Poisson regression to examine factors associated with knowledge, attitudes, and practices.

Results: A total of 182 participants were included in this study, a large proportion of them had never heard of corticosteroids (34%) and NSAIDs (54%) before. Physicians were the source of information regarding corticosteroids and NSAIDs in 83% and 84% of the cases, respectively. Gastric ulcer was the most commonly recognized adverse drug reaction (ADR) for corticosteroids (64%) and the only ADR recognized for NSAIDs (95%), while only few patients were aware of life-threatening ADRs. The primary barrier, with a 40% agreement, was health care providers' time constraints in providing medication information to patients. Our study findings did not reveal any gaps in practice, nor did they show any correlation between patients' knowledge and attitudes to the practice of using corticosteroids and NSAIDs.

Conclusion: There were gaps in knowledge, attitudes, and barriers to information access regarding NSAIDs and corticosteroid use in Vietnamese patients with chronic rheumatic diseases. Potential solutions include allocating more time for information exchange between physicians and patients, creating new channels to provide reliable information for patients, and emphasizing the important ADRs.

Keywords: NSAIDs; attitude; corticosteroids; knowledge; practice.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Attitudes toward NSAIDs and corticosteroids use and information receiving.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Information receiving barriers.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Practice of medication use.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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