TABLE 1.

Demographics and Clinical Characteristics

Characteristic	Total No. (%)	Medication Group
		Group 1* No. (%)	Group 2† No. (%)	Group 3‡ No. (%)
N	20,814	11,772	13,367	3796
Mean age, yr (SD)	63.0 (12.4)	62.4 (12.7)	63.6 (12.0)	59.4 (11.6)
Sex (% male)	18,882 (90.7)	10,529 (89.3)	12,195 (91.2)	3453 (91.0)
Race
White	13,804 (66.3)	7722 (65.6)	9021 (67.5)	2660 (70.1)
Black	2338 (11.2)	1546 (13.1)	1354 (10.1)	335 (8.8)
Other	1066 (5.1)	647 (5.5)	678 ( 5.1)	228 (6.0)
Unknown	3606 (17.3)	1857 (15.8)	2311 (17.3)	573 (15.1)
Comorbidities
Diabetes mellitus	6144 (29.5)	3254 (27.6)	4001 (29.9)	1132 (29.8)
Hypertension	15,329 (73.7)	8405 (71.4)	9768 (73.1)	2753 (72.5)
Arrhythmia	4360 (21.0)	2247 (19.1)	2769 (20.7)	725 (19.1)
Heart failure	3012 (14.5)	1587 (13.5)	1910 (14.2)	441 (11.6)
Malignancy	4646 (22.3)	2464 (20.9)	2913 (21.8)	710 (18.7)
Chronic lung disease	8060 (38.7)	4430 (37.6)	5048 (37.7)	1474 (38.8)
Renal failure	1653 (7.9)	898 (7.6)	974 (7.3)	277 (7.3)
Liver disease	1252 (6.0)	885 (7.5)	480 (3.6)	261 (6.9)
AIDS§	91 (0.4)	56 (0.5)	43 (0.3)	16 (0.4)
None of the above	2295 (11.0)	1305 (11.1)	1381 (10.3)	447 (11.8)
Prednisone use	12,025 (57.8)	5524 (47.0)	8071 (60.4)	2021 (53.2)
Mean no. intraarticular procedures (SD)	0.46 (1.39)	0.43 (1.29)	0.44 (1.32)	0.76 (1.93)
Mean no. orthopedic procedures (SD)	0.06 (0.32)	0.05 (0.28)	0.06 (0.31)	0.11 (0.42)

Abbreviations: AIDS = acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, SD = standard deviation.

^*Group 1 medications include hydroxycholoroquine, sulfasalazine, auranofin, injectable gold, and penicillamine.

^†Group 2 medications include methotrexate, leflunomide, azathioprine, cyclophosphamide, cyclosporine, and anakinra.

^‡Group 3 medications include etanercept, infliximab, and adalimumab.