Table 2.

Treatment characteristics of the 897 incident RA by decade of index date

Characteristic	1980s	1990s	2000s
ESR at index, mm/hr, median (IQR)	25 (31,40)	20 (8,34)	18 (9,32)
Max ESR first year, mm/hr, median (IQR)	36 (20,50)	27 (12,42)	23 (12,40)
Methotrexate use in first year, N (%)	4 (2)	83 (28)	233 (58)
Hydroxychloroquine use in first year, N (%)	50 (25)	133 (45)	225 (56)
Other csDMARD use in first year, N (%)	56 (28)	44 (15)	37 (9)
Biologic DMARD use, N (%)	0 (0)	1 (0)	39 (9)

cs = conventional synthetic, DMARD = disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug, ESR = erythrocyte sedimentation rate, IQR = interquartile range, RA = rheumatoid arthritis