Table 1.

The initial DMARD in selected early rheumatoid arthritis cohorts, according to the time period

Country	Cohort, [reference]	Enrollment period	Percentage of patients who started selected DMARDs
			IM gold (%)	AM (%)	SSZ (%)	MTX (%)	Other DMARDs (%)	No DMARDs (%)
1970s
Finland	Heinola Cohort, Jantti et al. [76]	1973–1975	56	36	0	0	4	4
1980s
Finland	Jyvasyla Cohort1983–1985 Sokka et al. [46]	1983–1985	70	30	0	0	0	0
Austria	Aletaha et al. [53]	1985	87	7	0	0	6
NL	Welsing et al. [56]	1985–1990	Na	Na	60	2	38
Early 1990s
Austria	Aletaha et al. [53]	1992	20	46	22	4	8
NL	Welsing et al. [56]	1991–1995	Na	Na	82	9	9
UK	ERAS, Young et al. [77]	Before 1994	8	2	61	2	11	16
UK	aNOAR, Bukhari et al. [78]	Early 1990s	3	4	37	3	1	52
Greece	Papadopoulos et al. [79]	1987–1995	5	30	0	21	44	0
USA	Western Consortium, Paulus et al. [80]	1993–1996	4	17	7	36	0	36
Sweden	BARFOT, Forslind et al. [81]	1993–1997	0	0	34	24	8	34
Late 1990s
Finland	Jyvaskyla Cohort 1995–1996, Sokka et al. [46]	1995–1996	3	1	95	1	0	0
Finland	Jyvaskyla 1997, Makinen et al. [82]	1997	Na	Na	73	20	6	1
Sweden	Carli et al. [83]	1997	Na	Na	30	23	11	33
Austria	Aletaha et al. [53]	1998	1	40	29	29	1
NL	Welsing et al. [56]	1996–2000	Na	Na	76	10	14
Early 2000s
USA	ERATER, Sokka and Pincus [69]	1998–2003	0	7	1	82	3	7
Sweden	Carli et al. [83]	2001	Na	Na	20	54	6	17
USA	SONORA, Bombardier et al. [84]	Early 2000s	0	16	5	27	17	35
Italy	GIARA, CER [85]	b2001–2002	Na	18	1.2	19	11	51

Data for “other DMARDs” and “no DMARDs” were combined when detailed data were not available

IM gold intramuscular gold, AM antimalarials, SSZ sulfasalazine, MTX methotrexate, Na not available, NL The Netherlands

^aEarly inflammatory polyarthritis

^bEarly RA patients in the cohort included