Table 3.
Respondents’ compliance with the RA standard management guidelines.
| To What Extent Do You Agree or Disagree with the Following Statements? | Strongly Agree n (%) |
Agree n (%) |
Neutral n (%) |
Disagree n (%) |
Strongly Disagree n (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DMARD therapy should initiated immediately upon the RA diagnosis being confirmed. | 101 (24.4) | 172 (41.6) | 97 (23.4) | 21 (5.0) | 22 (5.3) |
| Patients need access to multiple medications with different modes of action to combat the heterogeneity of RA; they may need multiple consecutive therapies during their life course. | 147 (35.5) | 168 (40.6) | 56 (13.5) | 33 (7.9) | 9 (2.1) |
| Monitoring should be regular in active disease and therapy should be adjusted in the case of no improvement. | 103 (24.9) | 167 (40.4) | 125 (30.2) | 13 (3.1) | 5 (1.2) |
| Methotrexate should be included in the initial treatment strategy. | 56 (13.5) | 243 (58.8) | 86 (20.8) | 25 (6.0) | 3 (0.7) |
| If the use of methotrexate is contraindicated in a patient, leflunomide or sulfasalazine should be included in the initial treatment strategy. | 164 (39.7) | 152 (36.8) | 88 (21.3) | 5 (1.2) | 4 (0.9) |
| Short-term glucocorticoids should be considered when initiating or changing csDMARDs. | 103 (24.9) | 168 (40.6) | 116 (28.0) | 22 (5.3) | 4 (0.9) |
| If the treatment target is not accomplished with the first csDMARD, other csDMARDs strategies should be considered. | 106 (25.6) | 227 (54.9) | 70 (16.9) | 7 (1.6) | 3 (0.7) |
| If the treatment target is not achieved with the first csDMARD strategy, then a bDMARD should be added. | 122 (29.5) | 201 (48.6) | 66 (15.9) | 21 (5.0) | 3 (0.7) |
| bDMARDs should be combined with a csDMARD in patients who cannot use csDMARDs as a co-medication. | 150 (36.3) | 132 (31.9) | 120 (29.0) | 5 (1.2) | 6 (1.4) |
| If a bDMARD has failed, treatment with another bDMARD should be considered. | 104 (25.1) | 191 (46.2) | 85 (20.5) | 19 (4.6) | 14 (3.3) |
| Treatment goals of RA patients should be based on a shared decision between the patient and the rheumatologist. | 118 (28.5) | 122 (29.5) | 129 (31.2) | 39 (9.4) | 5 (1.2) |
| Treatment decisions are based on disease activity, safety issues, and other patient factors such as co-morbidities and progression of structural damage. | 101 (24.4) | 184 (44.5) | 81 (19.6) | 18 (4.3) | 29 (7.0) |