International Journal of Innovative Research in Medical Science (IJIRMS) Volume 08, Issue 10, October 2023, https://doi.org/10.23958/ijirms/vol08-i10/1763 www.ijirms.in 464 Original article Compliance to Drug Therapy in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases: A Monocentric Experience Aouroud Hala * 1 , Adil Ait Errami 1 , Nayala Hanane Essaidi 1 , FZ. Lairani 1 , O. Nacir 1 , Sofia Oubaha 2 , Zouhour Samlani 1 , Khadija Krati 1 1 Department of Gastro-enterology and Hepatology, University Mohamed VI Hospital, Marrakesh, Morocco. 2 Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Marrakesh, Morocco. *Corresponding author: Hala Aouroud; aouroudhala@gmail.com Received 18 September 2023; Accepted 09 October 2023; Published 13 October 2023 Abstract Poor therapeutic compliance in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) has a negative impact on treatment efficacy and patients' quality of life. Addressing this issue requires an understanding of the factors involved, which include patient-related factors, socioeconomic conditions, treatment, and healthcare system factors. The aim of this study was to identify the factors responsible for poor therapeutic compliance in patients with IBD in our context. We conducted a prospective study involving 120 patients with IBD over a 10-month period. Data was collected using two questionnaires: one general questionnaire exploring factors influencing compliance and another specific one (Morisky Score) assessing the level of compliance. Of the 120 patients included, the average age was 39.66 years, with a female predominance. Crohn's disease was the most common pathology (71.7%), and 75% of patients were adherent to treatment. Lack of means was the most common reason for treatment abandonment. Bivariate analysis revealed a significant correlation between compliance, gender, monthly income, number of hospitalizations, number of daily doses, cost, perception of treatment importance, access to the treating physician, and mode of communication. Therefore, improving therapeutic compliance requires continuous support from healthcare professionals and the healthcare system, as well as responsible patients. Keywords: Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, jaundice, hepatic involvement, Therapeutic compliance, inflammatory bowel diseases, therapeutic adherence, improvement Introduction Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) include Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, and indeterminate colitis. The precise etiology remains unknown and is believed to be multifactorial according to the literature. Maintaining disease remission requires good patient therapeutic compliance, defined as the "agreement between a person's behavior, medication intake, adherence to a diet, or modification of behavior and a healthcare provider's recommendations." This includes not only adherence to medications but also adherence to associated diets and lifestyles. Solving the problem of non-compliance with treatment would be more effective than any new biomedical advancement. Therefore, its evaluation is of great importance. The World Health Organization (WHO) highlights non-compliance as a "striking problem" that continues to grow, as evidenced by the increasing number of publications on this topic. This study aims to explore the issue of therapeutic compliance, which has been relatively unaddressed in Morocco, and shed light on therapeutic compliance in IBD patients treated at the Mohamed VI University Hospital in Marrakech. We will attempt to apply a tool to measure therapeutic compliance in our study, explore possible correlations between therapeutic compliance in IBD patients and factors influencing this condition, and finally discuss some actions that can improve therapeutic compliance. Methods We conducted a prospective descriptive and cross-sectional analytical study over a period of 10 months (April 2021 - January 2022). The study population was recruited from the gastroenterology department at Mohamed VI University Hospital in Marrakech (day hospital, outpatient clinic, and inpatient department). The target population consisted of patients with IBD. We excluded patients under 17 years of age, those who stopped treatment following medical advice, those diagnosed within the past year, and those experiencing a flare-up for less than a month. Each included patient was informed about the study by the investigating physician. After obtaining their consent, the patient was informed again about the study's objectives. The variables studied in our research included epidemiological data (age, sex, geographic origin, employment status, socioeconomic level, education level), personal and family history, disease history (type of IBD, years since diagnosis, associated events, number of flare-ups, consultations, colonoscopies, surgeries, complications), therapeutic measures, doctor-patient relationship, family-patient relationship, patient's psychological experience, Morisky 8-item adherence scale (the most widely used scale in the literature to evaluate therapeutic adherence), and reasons for treatment abandonment. Data entry was done using SPSS version 2.6 software and R language. The study included a