Table 1.
Clinical characteristics of enrolled patients at 1 year follow-up
| Characteristics | All patients with DAS28 <2.6 at first year follow up (n=680) |
Patients with DAS28 <2.6 and VAS-pain ≥4 (n=146) | Patients with DAS28 <2.6 and VAS-pain <4 (n=534) |
p-value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age (yr) | 53.6±12.9 | 55.4±13.5 | 53.7±12.8 | 0.059 |
| Female | 553 (81.3) | 121 (82.9) | 432 (80.9) | 0.587 |
| Marital status, married | 602 (88.5) | 126 (86.3) | 476 (89.1) | 0.340 |
| Smoking history | 0.986 | |||
| Ex-smoker | 63 (9.3) | 13 (8.9) | 50 (9.3) | |
| Current smoker | 42 (6.2) | 9 (6.2) | 33 (6.2) | |
| Never | 575 (84.5) | 124 (84.9) | 451 (84.5) | |
| BMI (kg/m2)* | 22.7 (20.5~24.9) | 22.7 (20.3~25.0) | 22.7 (20.7~24.9) | 0.407 |
| Disease duration (yr) | 9.4±7.4 | 11.1±9.0 | 8.9±6.8 | 0.012 |
| Tender joint count* | 0.5±1.1 | 0.7±1.3 | 0.4±1.0 | <0.001 |
| Swollen joint count* | 0.3±0.8 | 0.3±0.8 | 0.3±0.8 | 0.008 |
| ESR (mm/h)* | 6.0 (2.0~13.0) | 4.0 (2.0~9.8) | 7.0 (2.0~14.0) | <0.001 |
| CRP (mg/dL)* | 0.1 (0.0~0.2) | 0.1 (0.0~0.1) | 0.1 (0.0~0.2) | 0.372 |
| Rheumatoid factor (positivity) (n=589) | 467/589 (79.3) | 93/120 (77.5) | 374/469 (79.7) | 0.588 |
| Anti-CCP antibody (positivity) (n=443) | 363/443 (81.9) | 72/89 (80.9) | 291/354 (82.2) | 0.775 |
| Physician’s GA* | 2.0 (1.0~3.0) | 3.0 (2.0~4.0) | 2.0 (1.0~3.0) | <0.001 |
| Patient’s GA* | 2.0 (1.0~3.0) | 4.0 (3.0~5.0) | 2.0 (1.0~3.0) | <0.001 |
| CDAI* | 4.0 (3.0~7.0) | 8.0 (6.0~10.0) | 4.0 (2.0~6.0) | <0.001 |
| EQ-VAS (n=63)* | 3.0 (2.0~4.0) | 6.0 (5.8~7.0) | 3.0 (2.0~3.0) | <0.001 |
| RAPID3* | 5.3 (3.0~8.7) | 12.0 (9.4~14.7) | 4.3 (2.4~6.3) | <0.001 |
| Presence of hand erosions (n=352) | 117/352 (33.2) | 24/73 (32.9) | 93/279 (33.3) | 0.941 |
| Presence of foot erosions (n=246) | 88/246 (35.8) | 28/53 (52.8) | 60/193 (31.1) | 0.003 |
Data are presented as number (%), mean±standard deviation, or median (interquartile range), unless otherwise indicated. DAS28: disease activity score of 28 joints, VAS: visual analog scale, BMI: body mass index, ESR: erythrocyte sedimentation rate, CRP: C-reactive protein, CCP: cyclic citrullinated peptide, GA: global assessment, CDAI: clinical disease activity index, EQ-VAS: EuroQol visual analog scale, RAPID3: routine assessment of patient index data 3. Continuous data were assessed by independent t-test and categorical data were analyzed by chi-square test. *These data were assessed by Mann–Whitney U-test.