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Treating rheumatoid arthritis to target: recommendations assessment questionnaire in Korea

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Abstract

Treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA) to target (T2T) is an international initiative to provide the rheumatology community with clear direction on treatment targets for RA. We performed a nationwide survey in Korea among rheumatologists to measure the levels of agreement with international T2T recommendations and to assess their practical application in Korea. A questionnaire was administered to 111 physicians. Responses were assessed using a 10-point Likert scale for the level of agreement with each of 10 recommendations and a 4-point Likert scale for the degree to which each recommendation was being applied in current daily practice. Respondents were also asked whether these recommendations would result in a change in their practice. This report outlines the consensus reached for T2T in Korea and compares those results with data obtained internationally. Agreement with T2T recommendations was high with average response scores above 8.3. The majority of respondents indicated they applied the recommendations “always” and “very often” in daily practice. More than half of the participants not currently applying these recommendations were willing to change their practice, but the percentage of Korean physicians willing to change was consistently more than the international average. The results of this survey of T2T recommendations in Korean rheumatologists revealed a good correlation with the views of the international rheumatology community. These results could be utilized to define key issues for better disease control in daily practice and used as a reference to improve the treatment environment.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the T2T Core Member Group: Seong-Wook Kang, Sung-Soo Kim, Sung-Il Kim, Jin Seok Kim, Hae-Rim Kim, Wan-Hee Yoo, Chang-Hee Seo, Seung-Cheol Shim, Shin-Seok Lee, Eun Young Lee, Ji-Soo Lee, Chang Keun Lee, Choong-Ki Lee, Won Tae Chung, Ji Hyeon Ju, Hoon-Suk Cha, Seong-Jae Choi, Jung-Yoon Choe, and Chan-Bum Choi. We thank the Korean College of Rheumatology for permitting the use of their website to enable the survey to be completed.

Disclosures

A draft of this manuscript was prepared by UBM Medica and supported financially by Abbott Korea and Eisai Korea. Abbott Korea and Eisai Korea did not take part in the actual preparation of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Soo-Kon Lee.

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Park, YB., Koh, EM., Kim, HY. et al. Treating rheumatoid arthritis to target: recommendations assessment questionnaire in Korea. Clin Rheumatol 32, 1791–1797 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-013-2365-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-013-2365-5

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