ESPE Abstracts

Background: Treatment compliance is one of the most important practical aspects in long-term treatments such as GH therapy.

Objective and hypotheses: To evaluate the level of compliance and its association with duration of treatment and other demographic factors.

Method: A prospective study with the use of validated questionnaires was conducted in the Endocrinology Department of one of the two main Pediatric Hospitals in Athens. The study included 66 children (43 boys), with mean age 13.2 (2.5) years and mean duration of treatment 3.5 (3.2) years. The level of compliance was considered to be high if the child missed less than three doses, medium between three and five doses and low more than five doses per month. χ² test was used for the comparisons of proportions while Mann–Whitney U test was used for continuous variables. Multiple regression analysis was used with stepwise methods.

Results: The level of compliance with GH treatment was high in the majority of children (78.5%). In 66.2% of the cases, there was a loss of at least one dose and the number of missed injections was independently associated with father’s educational level (P=0.021) and treatment duration (P=0.015). The most common reason for omitting a dose was being away from home (30.8%) followed by forgetfulness (24.6%). Only 54.6% of the cases were confident enough that they injected themselves properly. Children whose parents were satisfied from their training were five fold more likely to have a high level of compliance (odds ratio: 5.07, 95% CI: 1.2–25). Most of the children (76%) found the use of the injection device easy/very easy. These children had almost double duration of treatment compared to the rest (4.0 (3.7) vs 1.9 (3.7), P=0.025).

Conclusion: Level of compliance seems to be positively affected from parent’s educational level and satisfaction from training and negatively affected from the increase in the duration of the treatment.