Evaluation of a Nurse-led Program for the Prevention of Complications of Long-term Corticosteroid Therapy

It is a PROBE (Prospective Randomized Open trial with a Blind Evaluation) study, in which the primary endpoint will be assessed at week-52 by an independent physician blinded to the participant's allocation group. The target population is adult patients initiating a first sequence of long term corticosteroid therapy, to the exception of onco-hematological indications, severe chronic renal failure and organ transplant. Patients in both groups will have baseline and week-52 standardized visits including clinical evaluation, routine biology, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and quality of life assessment (SF-36). Corticosteroid consumption will be collected throughout the study using a dedicated notebook. At the week-52 visit, the burden of adverse events related to the use of corticosteroids will be assessed through the glucocorticoid toxicity index (GTI), completed by the blinded physician.