. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 May 1.

Published in final edited form as: J Rheumatol. 2012 Feb 15;39(5):954–958. doi: 10.3899/jrheum.111076

Table 1.

Characteristics of 650 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and 650 subjects without RA.

	RA	Non-RA	p-value
Age at incidence, years, mean ± SD	55.8 ± 15.7	55.8 ± 15.7	1.0
Sex, female, n (%)	448 (69%)	448 (69%)	1.0
Length of follow-up, years	7.9 ± 5.2	9.0 ± 5.4	--
Hypothyroid disease at incidence/index, n(%)	107 (16%)	88 (14%)	0.14
Subclinical hypothyroidism prior to incidence/index, n(%)	20 (3%)	27 (4%)	0.30
Hashimoto’s disease at incidence/index, n (%)	36 (6%)	35 (5%)	0.90
Graves’ disease at incidence/index, n (%)	4 (0.6%)	4 (0.6%)	1.0
Use of Levothyroxine at incidence/index	97 (15%)	75 (12%)	0.07
Rate of TSH testing*	50 tests per 100 person-years (95% CI: 48, 52)	44 tests per 100 person-years (95% CI: 43, 46)	P<0.001

TSH = Thyroid stimulating hormone