Adherence status to Adjuvant Endocrine Therapy in Chinese Women with Early Breast Cancer and its influencing factors: A cross-sectional survey.

OBJECTIVE: Despite the proven benefits of adjuvant endocrine therapy, adherence to oral endocrine therapy in breast cancer treatment is a substantial problem. The aim of this study was to assess adherence to adjuvant endocrine therapy by women in China for the first 5 years, and to identify its influencing factors. METHODS: Stratified sampling method was adopted to select 1875 cases of breast cancer patients for cross-sectional telephone follow-up. Compliance to medications was assessed using the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale. Status of endocrine therapy was assessed using nine additional questions. Binomial regression was used when assessing the factors associated with persistence, multinomial regression models were used to assess factors associated with compliance. RESULTS: Of 888 patients who started adjuvant endocrine therapy, 769(86.6%) persisted and 119 (13.4%) discontinued. 760 patients who completed Morisky Medication Adherence Scale, the compliance was 7.4% low, 42% medium, and 50.6% high. The type of medication, duration of medication and side effects had an impact both on persistence and compliance. Age, history of radiotherapy and caregivers only had an impact on persistence. CONCLUSIONS: Medication adherence was affected by many factors. Special attention and interventions should be given to women taking tamoxifen in the 2nd to 3rd year of medication, and aromatase inhibitors in the 1st to 2nd year. Further prospective design studies are needed to explore effective measures to improve medication adherence of women with breast cancer treated by endocrine therapy.

[Influence of obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome on the QTc interval].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the influence of obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) on the QTc interval. METHODS: By the polysomnograph,98 patients were divided into an obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome group and a control group. We tested their 24 hour DCG and observed the difference of the heart rate,QT interval and QTc interval at the same time. RESULTS: We compared the heart rate (76 +/- 10 bt/min), QT interval (366 +/- 30 ms), and QTc interval (404 +/- 45 ms) with those of the control group (73 +/- 96 bt/min, 342 +/- 31 ms, 374 +/- 30 ms, respectively). The QT interval and QTc interval significantly differred (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The QT interval and QTc interval in the OSAHS group has been prolonged, suggesting OSAHS might be a high risk factor in arrhythmia and sudden death.