Table 3.

Association between oral GC use and all-cause and cause-specific mortality (n = 16,187)

Model	Oral GC pattern	Adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) with 95 % CIa
		All-cause mortality death = 2770	CV mortality death = 1039	Neoplasms death = 606	Respiratory diseases death = 468	Other causes death = 657
1	Ever use, (ref = never use)	1.97 (1.81–2.15)	1.66 (1.45–1.91)	3.20 (2.66–3.86)	2.64 (2.11–3.31)	1.39 (1.16–1.66)
2	Current use, (ref = non-use)	1.77 (1.62–1.93)	1.58 (1.37–1.83)	2.22 (1.84–2.68)	1.92 (1.57–2.36)	1.69 (1.41–2.02)
3	Current dose per 5 mg/day	1.33 (1.30–1.35)	1.21 (1.16–1.27)	1.46 (1.42–1.49)	1.36 (1.30–1.41)	1.25 (1.20–1.31)
4	Current dose category, (ref = non-use)
	>0–4.9 mg	1.02 (0.87–1.20)	1.10 (0.85–1.41)	0.79 (0.51–1.22)	0.87 (0.57–1.33)	1.15 (0.85–1.57)
	5.0–7.4 mg	1.44 (1.26–1.64)	1.59 (1.31–1.94)	1.07 (0.75–1.52)	1.74 (1.30–2.32)	1.23 (0.93–1.63)
	7.5–14.9 mg	2.24 (1.98–2.54)	1.96 (1.59–2.42)	2.34 (1.75–3.13)	2.19 (1.62–2.97)	2.66 (2.09–3.38)
	15.0–24.9 mg	4.50 (3.61–5.62)	2.79 (1.80–4.31)	8.07 (5.41–12.0)	8.03 (5.31–12.2)	2.06 (1.09–3.90)
	≥25 mg	11.0 (8.87–13.6)	2.48 (1.23–4.99)	31.3 (23.5–41.9)	11.4 (6.84–19.0)	6.87 (4.01–11.8)
5	Cumulative dose since cohort entry (1000 mg/day)	1.06 (1.05–1.07)	1.05 (1.04–1.07)	1.06 (1.04–1.08)	1.07 (1.05–1.09)	1.07 (1.05–1.08)
6	Cumulative dose category (ref = non-use)
	>0–959.9 mg	1.60 (1.42–1.81)	1.41 (1.16–1.72)	2.51 (1.97–3.21)	2.18 (1.61–2.95)	1.04 (0.79–1.36)
	960–3054.9 mg	1.83 (1.62–2.07)	1.38 (1.12–1.70)	3.84 (3.04–4.87)	2.24 (1.64–3.05)	1.16 (0.88–1.52)
	3055–7299.9 mg	2.11 (1.87–2.39)	1.91 (1.57–2.32)	3.31 (2.55–4.30)	2.65 (1.95–3.61)	1.48 (1.15–1.92)
	≥7300 mg	3.11 (2.74–3.52)	2.59 (2.11–3.18)	3.85 (2.90–5.10)	4.85 (3.59–6.55)	2.54 (1.98–3.25)

^aAdjusted for gender, age, smoking status, SES, prior cumulative dose of GC, Charlson comorbidity index at baseline, time-varying NSAID use and time-varying DMARD use