Table IV.

Results from the cohort study for the risk of recurrent VTE related to periods of glucocorticoid use. All 2547 patients with a first VTE from the MEGA Study (the Netherlands, 1999–2004) who were linked to the Stichting Farmaceutische Kengetallen (SFK) data register were included in these analyses.

Oral glucocorticoids	Observation years	Recurrent events	Incidence rate per 1000 person‐years (95% CI)	HR (95% CI)	HR (95% CI)*
Aggregated period of oral glucocorticoid treatment
No oral glucocorticoid	12435	354	28·47 (25·67; 31·55)	Reference	Reference
Oral glucocorticoid treatment	172	13	75·38 (43·78; 129·82)	2·45 (1·42; 4·36)	2·72 (1·64; 4·78)
Periods with treatment
No oral glucocorticoid	12435	354	28·47 (25·67; 31·55)	Reference	Reference
≤180 days with glucocorticoid treatment	103	7	67·86 (32·28; 142·24)	2·48 (1·19; 5·15)	2·61 (1·23; 5·36)
>180 days with glucocorticoid treatment	69	6	86·69 (39·04; 193·09)	2·64 (1·23; 5·78)	2·86 (1·26; 6·56)

CI, confidence interval; HR, hazard ratio; IRR, incidence rate ratio; MEGA study, Multiple Environmental and Genetic Assessment of Risk Factors for Venous Thrombosis Case‐Control Study; VTE, venous thromboembolism.

^*Adjusted for age and sex.