Table 1.
Baseline characteristics of the analytical cohorts
| DANBIO | AOK PLUS | |
|---|---|---|
| N | 21,538 | 7112 |
| Person-years | 120,300 | 55,799 |
| Sex, female | 14,169 (65.8%) | 4903 (68.9%) |
| Age, years | 69.9 (5.9) | 76.5 (6.4) |
| Prevalent cardiovascular comorbidities | ||
| Diabetes mellitus | 1627 (7.6 %) | 2684 (37.7%) |
| Stroke | 1001 (4.6%) | 191 (2.7%) |
| Hypertension | 4825 (22.4%) | 5208 (73.2%) |
| Peripheral arterial occlusive disease | 1112 (5.2%) | 939 (13.2%) |
| Drug treatment | ||
| TNFi | 5284 (24.5%) | 197 (2.8%) |
| Non-TNF biologics | 1792 (8.3%) | 67 (0.9%) |
| Corticosteroids | 6457 (30.0%) | 6815 (95.8%) |
| Low-potency immunosuppressants | 7677 (35.6%) | 659 (9.3%) |
| Intermediate-potency immunosuppressants | 1755 (8.1%) | 636 (8.9%) |
| High-potency immunosuppressants | 18,732 (87.0%) | 2042 (28.7%) |
| Incident dementia | 766 (3.6%) | 1840 (25.9%) |
| Follow-up until dementia, yearsa | 4.9 (2.6–7.9) | 4.6 (2.4–6.6) |
TNF tumor necrosis factor, TNFi tumor necrosis factor-α inhibitors
aValues expressed as median (quartile 1 to quartile 3). All other values expressed as mean (standard deviation) or N (%)