Table 1:
Patient baseline characteristics
| Characteristic | No. (%) of patients* n = 71 642 |
|---|---|
| Sociodemographic information | |
| Age, yr, mean ± SD | 50.5 ± 17.4 |
| Men | 27 252 (38.0) |
| Ethnicity | |
| White | 61 637 (86.0) |
| Black | 776 (1.1) |
| Asian | 2316 (3.2) |
| Index of multiple deprivation | |
| 1st (least deprived) | 13 139 (18.3) |
| 5th (most deprived) | 11 883 (16.6) |
| Body mass index in kg/m2, mean ± SD | 25.7 ± 5.3 |
| Chronic inflammatory disease† | |
| Giant cell arteritis | 3219 (4.5) |
| Inflammatory bowel disease | 25 162 (35.1) |
| Polymyalgia rheumatica | 16 385 (22.9) |
| Rheumatoid arthritis | 20 214 (28.2) |
| Systemic lupus erythematosus | 3329 (4.7) |
| Vasculitis | 4473 (6.2) |
| Comorbidities | |
| Cardiovascular diseases | 3794 (5.3) |
| Stage 3 or 4 chronic kidney disease | 797 (1.1) |
| Scleroderma | 57 (0.2) |
| Non-oral glucocorticoids in last year | |
| Inhaled | 5606 (7.8) |
| Nasal | 3811 (5.3) |
| Intramuscular | 297 (0.4) |
| Topical | 1306 (1.8) |
| Rectal | 3411 (4.8) |
Note: SD = standard deviation.
*
Unless stated otherwise.
†
Figures include patients with prevalent and incident disease, and some patients could have more than 1 disease.