Table 1.

Characteristics of adults with RA and without RA, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, 2018 to 2020^*

Characteristic	RA group		Non‐RA group		P value
	Weighted frequency	%	Weighted frequency	%
Age, y					<0.0001
18–49	657,532	15.41	134,427,722	52.90
50–64	1,694,651	39.72	61,425,571	24.17
≥65	1,914,377	44.87	53,981,985	21.24
Sex					<0.0001
Male	1,320,392	30.95	121,619,937	48.68
Female	2,946,168	69.05	128,215,341	51.32
Race					<0.0001
Hispanic	639,688	14.99	41,361,934	16.56
White	2,659,357	62.33	155,901,180	62.40
Black	657,354	15.41	29,734,760	11.90
Other a	310,161	7.27	22,837,404	9.14
Region					0.1476
Northeast	2,084,043	16.282	129,214,986	17.24
Midwest	2,603,034	20.34	153,968,589	20.54
South	5,187,612	40.53	281,726,489	37.59
West	2,924,992	22.85	184,595,769	24.63
Education					<0.0001
No degree	1,153,933	27.05	56,487,587	13.82
GED/high school graduation	2,208,697	51.77	109,793,987	21.80
Associate's/bachelor's degrees	511,441	11.99	52,247,809	44.32
Master's degree or higher	392,488	9.20	31,305,896	20.07
Marital status					<0.0001
Married	2,192,243	51.38	128,251,095	51.33
Widowed/divorced/separated	1,657,544	38.85	48,265,504	19.32
Single/never married	416,772	9.77	73,318,679	29.35
Family income					<0.0001
Poor/near poor	998,174	23.49	34,812,095	13.934
Low income	649,761	15.23	30,001,718	12.01
Middle income	1,083,738	25.4007	71,073,750	28.45
High income	1,534,887	35.97	113,947,715	45.61
Insurance					<0.0001
Private	2,189,125	51.31	172,080,799	68.88
Public	2,024,038	47.44	58,645,163	23.47
Uninsured	53,396	1.25	19,109,316	7.65
Number of Elixhauser comorbidities					<0.0001
0–1	1,139,173	26.70	191,302,105	76.57
2.0–3.0	1,516,743	35.55	40,031,040	16.02
≥4	1,610,644	37.75	18,502,133	7.41

^*GED, graduate equivalent degree; RA, rheumatoid arthritis. Significance at P<0.05 has been bolded.

^a Others included non‐Hispanic and Asian only or non‐Hispanic and other races or multiple races.