Identifying factors that influence problematic beliefs and behaviors related to
pharmacotherapy may be useful for clinicians to improve the patients' adherence. The study aims to assess patients' beliefs about the necessity and concerns regarding
pharmacotherapy in
rheumatic diseases and attitude styles, and to investigate the association between clinical factors and negative beliefs about medication. A sample of 712 patients affected by
Rheumatoid Arthritis,
Psoriatic Arthritis,
Ankylosing Spondylitis was enrolled. They were assessed using the Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaires-Specific (BMQ), the Simplified Disease Activity Index (SDAI), the Visual Analogue Scale for
pain (VAS), the Chalder
Fatigue Scale (CFQ) and the Health Assessment Questionnaire-Disability Index (
HAQ-DI). The balance between benefits and costs in the BMQ-Specific was positive in the 79.4% of patients, negative in the 12.1% and equal in the 8.6%. SDAI, taking more than 5 medications, taking anti
interleukin 6 (Anti-IL6) or
biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs), or targeted synthetic
disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (tsDMARDs),
pain, and
fatigue were significantly associated to higher Concerns. Having a longer disease duration was significantly associated with a higher Necessity, together with the current pharmacological treatments and the disability. The multivariate regression models estimated that higher
pain and
fatigue were associated to higher Concerns (p < 0.001), while a longer disease duration (p < 0.001) and all pharmacological treatments for a rheumatologic disease (p = 0.001) were associated to higher Necessity levels. A high length of disease, a low level of remission, a high number of total medications, the prescription of an Anti-
IL6/bDMARDs/tsDMARDs
drug, a high level of
pain,
fatigue and disability identified patients potentially less adherent to
pharmacotherapy to be carefully looked after by clinicians.