Table 3.
Treatment patterns of rheumatoid arthritis patients from the index date through the 12-month follow-up period
| All RA patients [N = 3993] | Access restrictions | p value (any vs. none) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Any [n = 1364] | None [n = 2629] | |||
| Effective treatmenta | 872 (21.8) | 273 (20.0) | 599 (22.8) | 0.045* |
| PDC, % (mean [SD]) | 54.3 [30.8] | 51.8 [30.9] | 55.7 [30.7] | < 0.001** |
| Adherent (PDC ≥ 80%) | 1122 (28.1) | 352 (25.8) | 770 (29.3) | 0.020* |
| Treatment modifications | ||||
| One or more treatment modifications | 1143 (28.6) | 389 (28.5) | 754 (28.7) | 0.915 |
| Days to first treatment modification (mean [SD]) | 145.2 [98.4] | 145.1 [99.8] | 145.2 [97.7] | 0.991 |
| Addition of a new csDMARD | 316 (7.9) | 103 (7.6) | 213 (8.1) | 0.541 |
| Increase in the index drug doseb | 92 (2.3) | 40 (2.9) | 52 (2.0) | 0.057 |
| Switch to a new bDMARD or tsDMARD | 662 (16.6) | 230 (16.9) | 432 (16.4) | 0.729 |
| Number of switches (mean [SD]) | 1 [1.4] | 2 [1.6] | 1 [1.3] | 0.306 |
| Addition of a new glucocorticoid, or increase in dose | 164 (4.1) | 63 (4.6) | 101 (3.8) | 0.241 |
| Two or more intra-articular corticosteroid injectionsc | 242 (6.1) | 88 (6.5) | 154 (5.9) | 0.456 |
| Discontinuationd of index drug | 3026 (75.8) | 1052 (77.1) | 1974 (75.1) | 0.153 |
| Restart index drug after ≥ 30-day gap | 824 (20.6) | 261 (19.1) | 563 (21.4) | 0.091 |
Data are expressed as n (%) unless otherwise specified
SD standard deviation, DMARD disease-modifying antirheumatic drug, csDMARD conventional synthetic DMARD, bDMARD biologic DMARD, tsDMARD targeted synthetic DMARD, RA rheumatoid arthritis, PDC proportion of days covered, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.001
aPDC ≥ 80% and the absence of any of the listed treatment modifications
bDefined separately for each medication using a validated algorithm [18]
cCorticosteroid injections during months 4–12 of follow-up
d≥ 30-day gap in days of supply