Table 2.
Changes in the therapeutic agents used, by age group
| <60 | 60–69 | 70–79 | ≥ 80 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | 2459 | 2619 | 2957 | 1264 | 9299 |
| MTX use (%) | 1718 (69.9) | 1750 (66.8) | 1665 (56.3) | 516 (40.8) | 5649 (60.6) |
| Dose (s.d.) | 8.38 (4.40) | 7.87 (4.36) | 7.06 (3.89) | 5.13 (3.83) | 7.60 (4.23) |
| PRED use (%) | 507 (20.6) | 615 (23.5) | 892 (30.2) | 649 (51.3) | 2663 (28.6) |
| Dose (s.d.) | 4.91 (2.52) | 4.41 (2.42) | 4.42 (2.66) | 4.51 (3.16) | 4.53 (2.67) |
| bDMARDs (%) | 713 (28.9) | 651 (24.8) | 633 (21.4) | 228 (18.0) | 2224 (23.9) |
| TNFi (%*) | 480 (67.3) | 418 (64.2) | 329 (49.6) | 132 (57.8) | 1354 (60.9) |
| IL6Ri (%*) | 203 (28.5) | 175 (26.9) | 171 (27.0) | 12 (5.3) | 561 (25.2) |
| Abatacept (%*) | 30 (4.2) | 58 (8.9) | 133 (21.0) | 84 (36.8) | 309 (13.9) |
| tsDMARDs (%) | 50 (2.0) | 31 (1.2) | 64 (2.2) | 21 (1.7) | 166 (1.8) |
%* means percentage of the drug in used b/ts DMARDs
Abbreviations: MTX methotrexate, s.d. standard deviation, PRED prednisolone, bDMARDs biological disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs, TNFi tumor necrosis factor inhibitor, IL6Ri interleukin-6 receptor inhibitor, tsDMARDs targeted synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs