Table 1.

Characteristics of German und Brazilian RA patients (mean ± SEM or n (%))

	German patients n = 176	Brazilian patients n = 91	p
Age, years	62.43 ± 12.33	56.3 ± 12.62	< 0.001
Age > 65 years	87 (49.4%)	24 (26.3%)	< 0.001
Women	138 (78.4%)	84 (92.3%)	< 0.001
Smoking	16 (12.9%)	No information
Marital status
Married	114 (64.8%)	32 (35.2%)	0.001
Single	19 (10.8%)	32 (35.2%)	0.001
Divorced	9 (5.1%)	13 (14.3%)	0.001
Widow	26 (14.8%)	13 (14.3%)	0.001
Having children	140 (79.5%)	66 (74.2%)	0.013
Laboral situation
Employed	56 (31.8%)	32 (35.2%)	1.00
Retired	116 (65.9%)	59 (64.8%)	0.283
Incapacitated	4 (2.2%)	0
RA duration, years	14.35 ± 10.41	15.9 6 ± 10.28	0.234
Positive rheumatoid factor	104/148 (70.3%)	18/31 (60.0%)	0.042
Positive ACPA	91/125 (72.8%)	5/29 (17.2%)	0.000
Erosive disease	70 (51.1%)	40 (43.9%)	0.011
DAS28-CRP	3.30 ± 1.35	3.42 ± 1.51	0.307
CRP, mg/L	5.82 ± 10.45	7.78 ± 18.3	0.028
HAQ-DI	1.01 ± 0.75	1.89 ± 1.85	0.012
HAQ-DI > 0.5	65.5%	64.1%	0.908
Treatment
Glucocorticoid (Gc), low dose	10 (5.7%)	2 (3.4%)	< 0.001
csDMARD ± Gc	68 (48.2%)	44 (74.6%)	0.003
bDMARD + csDMARD + Gc	33 (23.4%)	5 (8.5%)	1.00
bDMARD + csDMARD	5 (3.5%)	4 (6.8%)	1.00
bDMARD ± Gc	19 (13.5%)	3 (5.6%)	1.00

bDMARD biological disease modifying anti-rheumatic drug; CRP C-reactive protein; csDMARD conventional synthetic DMARD; DAS disease activity score; HAQ-DI Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index; SEM standard error of the mean