Table 1.

Baseline demographic and clinical characteristics of subjects without hypertension at baseline, stratified by first available NSAID use.

Variables	Whole cohort (n=628)	Continuous NSAID use (n=200)	Non-continuous or no NSAID use (n=428)	p-valued
Demographics
Age, years	39.4 ± 12.9	38.8 ± 12.5	39.6 ± 13.1	0.69
Male gender	72%	74%	72%	0.41
White race	80%	82%	79%	0.08
Disease characteristics
Age at symptom onset, yearsa	23.9 ± 9.2	23.4 ± 8.0	24.1 ± 9.7	0.59
Symptom duration, yearsa	15.7 ± 11.9	15.6 ± 11.6	15.8 ± 12.1	0.78
BASDAI (0–10)a	3.7 ± 2.4	3.5 ± 2.4	4.1 ± 2.5	0.03
ASDAS (0–10)a	2.0 ± 0.9	1.9 ± 0.9	2.1 ± 0.9	0.04
Exercise, minutes/week	164.2 ± 208.1	163.5 ± 243.0	165.1 ± 77.5	0.94
Abnormal CRPa,b	37%	43%	35%	0.03
Biologic use	43%	33%	47%	<0.001
Glucocorticoid use	7%	8%	6%	0.60
Cardiovascular disease and risk factors
Obese BMIa	22%	25%	21%	0.21
Cardiovascular diseasea,c	2%	2%	3%	0.43
Diabetesa	1%	2%	1%	0.26
Current smoker	10%	12%	9%	0.52
Statin use	3%	2%	3%	0.58

^aData were missing for age at symptom onset (n=61), symptom duration (n=61), BASDAI (n=3), ASDAS (n=7), exercise (n=2), abnormal CRP (n=3), obese BMI (n=317), cardiovascular disease (n=10), and diabetes (n=9).

^bCRP was abnormal if above the upper limit of the reference range associated with the value.

^cCardiovascular disease was the composite of patient-reported coronary artery disease, coronary bypass surgery, coronary angioplasty, heart attack, heart valve problems, and angina.

^dp-value refers to the difference between NSAID use strata as assessed by t-test for continuous variables or χ² test for categorical variables.

Abbreviations: NSAID: Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug; CRP: C-reactive protein; BASDAI: Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index; ASDAS: Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score; BMI: body mass index