Table 1.
Characteristics of Taiwanese patients with AS, RA, or PS/PSA who initiated therapy with a DMARD from 1999 to 2011
| Variable | DMARD therapy
|
P-value | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anti-TNFa (n=6,824) |
CSAa (n=2,940) |
HCQa (n=27,783) |
Referencea (n=44,635) |
||
| Age at initiation of DMARDs (years) | 49.2 (14.9) | 43.6 (15.7) | 50.3 (15.5) | 38.2 (14.7) | <0.001 |
| Sex | |||||
| Female | 4,553 (66.7%) | 1,313 (44.7%) | 20,058 (72.2%) | 13,200 (29.6%) | <0.001 |
| Male | 2,271 (33.3%) | 1,627 (55.3%) | 7,725 (27.8%) | 31,435 (70.4%) | |
| Disease group | |||||
| AS | 1,126 (16.5%) | 204 (6.9%) | 4,384 (15.8%) | 30,473 (68.3%) | <0.001 |
| RA | 4,975 (72.9%) | 874 (29.7%) | 21,530 (77.5%) | 3,148 (7.1%) | |
| PS/PSA | 723 (10.6%) | 1,862 (63.3%) | 1,869 (6.7%) | 11,014 (24.7%) | |
| Disease duration | |||||
| ≤5 years | 2,606 (38.2%) | 1,756 (59.7%) | 24,735 (89.0%) | 35,343 (79.2%) | <0.001 |
| >5–10 years | 2,593 (38.0%) | 788 (26.8%) | 2,396 (8.6%) | 6,033 (13.5%) | |
| >10 years | 1,625 (23.8%) | 396 (13.5%) | 652 (2.3%) | 3,259 (7.3%) | |
| Pretreatment CCI score | |||||
| 0 | 1,131 (16.6%) | 1,618 (55.0%) | 10,525 (37.9%) | 33,628 (75.3%) | <0.001 |
| 1 | 3,428 (50.2%) | 734 (25.0%) | 10,822 (39.0%) | 7,082 (15.9%) | |
| 2–4 | 1,998 (29.3%) | 460 (15.6%) | 5,467 (19.7%) | 3,015 (6.8%) | |
| ≥5 | 267 (3.9%) | 128 (4.4%) | 969 (3.5%) | 910 (2.0%) | |
| Pretreatment prednisolone doseb | |||||
| None | 1,536 (22.5%) | 1,245 (42.3%) | 10,098 (36.3%) | 30,631 (68.6%) | <0.001 |
| ≤1 mg/day | 535 (7.8%) | 785 (26.7%) | 12,279 (44.2%) | 10,592 (23.7%) | |
| >1 mg/day | 4,753 (69.7%) | 910 (31.0%) | 5,406 (19.5%) | 3,412 (7.6%) | |
| MTX used | |||||
| Total | 4,884 (71.6%) | 2,111 (71.8%) | 15,029 (54.1%) | 13,893 (31.1%) | <0.001 |
| AS | 212 (4.3%) | 55 (2.6%) | 890 (5.9%) | 3,159 (22.7%) | <0.001 |
| RA | 4,272 (87.5%) | 560 (26.5%) | 13,440 (89.4%) | 1,945 (14.0%) | |
| PS/PSA | 400 (8.2%) | 1,496 (70.9%) | 699 (4.7%) | 8,789 (63.3%) | |
Notes:
Based on the DMARD medication use, the patients were categorized into 4 mutually exclusive groups: (1) anti-TNF: TNF inhibitors with or without other DMARDs; (2) CSA: without TNF inhibitors or HCQ; (3) HCQ: without TNF inhibitors or CSA; (4) reference: nonbiologic DMARDs without TNF inhibitors, CSA, or HCQ.
Daily average-equivalent dose in the 1 year before the index date.
Abbreviations: AS, ankylosing spondylitis; RA, rheumatoid arthritis; PS/PSA, psoriasis/psoriatic arthritis; DMARD, disease-modifying antirheumatic drug; TNF, tumor necrosis factor; CSA, cyclosporine; HCQ, hydroxychloroquine; CCI, Charlson comorbidity index; MTX, methotrexate.