Background Interferon free treatments (IFT) for chronic hepatitis C (CHC) consist of more feasible and better tolerated regimens that could help to improve adherence. Nevertheless, little is known about adherence to these treatments in clinical practice.

Purpose To evaluate adherence to IFT in clinical practice and non-adherence risk factors.

Material and methods Patients completing IFT for CHC in a tertiary hospital were included (December 2014 to September 2015). Baseline characteristics including concomitant medications were recorded. Adherence was calculated as a percentage from pill count records performed in each drug dispensing visit (every 4 weeks) and at the end of treatment. Ribavirin dose reductions were not considered as lack of adherence. Bivariate analysis of baseline characteristics in patients with and without 100% adherence was performed. Fisher’s test and the Mann-Whitney U test were used for categorical and continuous variables, respectively.

Results 78 patients were included: median age was 59 years, 55 (70.5%) were male, 48 (61.5%) with genotype 1b, 15 (19.2%) with HIV coinfection, 53 (67.9%) with cirrhosis and 36 (46.2%) were naïve. Mean number of concomitant drugs was 3.31 (SD 2.7). 69 (88.5%) patients received 12 weeks of treatment.

No differences were found in demographics, genotype, HIV coinfection, previous antiviral treatment or number of concomitant medications between patients with and without 100% adherence.

Conclusion Observed adherence rates to all IFT in clinical practice were superior to 90%. None of the analysed factors seemed to influence patient adherence, probably due to the low number of patients and the excellent rates of adherence observed.

References and/or Acknowledgements

1. Pawlotsky JM. EASL Recommendations on Treatment of Hepatitis C 2015. J Hepatol 2015

References and/or AcknowledgementsNo conflict of interest.