Table 4. Subgroup meta-analysis of anti-CCP and RA patient response according to different anti-TNFα agents, follow-up periods, response criteria, and ethnic groups.
| Test of association | Test of heterogeneity | ||||||||
| Subgroup | Population | No. of studies | No. of patients | RR | 95%CI | P value | Model | P value | I2 |
| overall | 10 | 1283 | 0.88 | 0.76–1.03 | 0.11 | R | <0.01 | 67% | |
| Anti-TNFα agent* | infliximab | 5 | 345 | 0.79 | 0.55–1.13 | 0.19 | R | <0.01 | 78% |
| adalimumab | 3 | 297 | 1.01 | 0.88–1.17 | 0.86 | F | 0.69 | 0% | |
| Follow up period | ≥6 months | 7 | 1074 | 0.90 | 0.80–1.01 | 0.06 | R | 0.09 | 46% |
| <6 months | 3 | 209 | 0.78 | 0.40–1.53 | 0.47 | R | <0.01 | 86% | |
| Ethnic group | European | 7 | 1144 | 0.90 | 0.79–1.04 | 0.17 | R | 0.02 | 60% |
| South American | 2 | 109 | 1.01 | 0.79–1.30 | 0.91 | F | 0.38 | 0 | |
| Asian | 1 | 30 | 0.37 | 0.20–0.66 | <0.05 | NA | NA | NA | |
F, fixed-effects model; R, random-effects model; NA, not applicable.
*The number of studies and number of patients receiving individual anti-TNFα agent in this table are those that we could identified after literature review and contacting the authors.