Table 2.

Population attrition by application of inclusion and exclusion criteria

Reason for exclusion	Patients excluded		Patients remaining
	n	%	n	%
Patients with at least one RA diagnosis since January 1, 2007			97,816
No RA-related biologic claim throughout study period	86,123	88.05	11,693	11.95
Age <18 or >63 years on index	2,418	20.68	9,275	79.32
Continuously enrolled <180 days pre-index	6,189	66.73	3,086	33.27
Continuously enrolled <365 days post-index	1,245	40.34	1,841	59.66
No diagnosis of RA pre-index	451	24.50	1,390	75.50
Two or more RA biologics on the index date	0	0.00	1,390	100.00
RA-related biologic exposure pre-index	0	0.00	1,390	100.00
Index claim for RA-related biologics before US FDA approval	0	0.00	1,390	100.00
Had diagnosis for another disease indicationa pre-index	154	11.08	1,236	88.92
Had index biologic with sample size <100b	146	11.81	1,090	88.19

Notes:

^aNon-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, ankylosing spondylitis;

^banakinra, n=2; certolizumab, n=17; golimumab, n=33; rituximab, n=78; tocilizumab, n=16.

Abbreviations: RA, rheumatoid arthritis; US FDA, United States Food and Drug Administration.