Frequency of Hospitalized Infections Is Reduced in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Who Received Biological and Targeted Synthetic Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs after 2010
Table 1
Characteristics of the total, infection, and noninfection patient groups.
Variable
Total
Infection
Noninfection
value
()
()
()
Gender, male (%)
52/275 (18.9%)
12/35 (34.3%)
40/240 (16.7%)
0.0197
Age at initiation of bDMARD/tsDMARD (IQR)
59 (48–68)
61 (46–67)
58.5 (56–69)
0.0325
Disease duration until bDMARD/tsDMARD induction (months)
49.5 (14–150)
61 (20–173)
48 (14–149)
0.4677
DAS28-CRP (IQR)
4.60 (3.74–5.46)
4.95 (4.05-6.09)
4.54 (3.69–5.40)
0.1061
DAS28-ESR (IQR)
5.32 (4.37–6.18)
5.69 (4.54–6.74)
5.20 (4.34–6.08)
0.0805
Body weight (kg) (IQR)
52 (46–59)
54 (45–62)
52 (47–58)
0.7788
No. of previous bDMARD/tsDMARD uses (IQR)
1 (1-2)
1 (1-2)
1 (1-2)
0.226
Prophylaxis with an antituberculosis agent
195/275 (70.9%)
30/35 (85.7%)
165/240 (68.8%)
0.0458
Prophylaxis with TMP-SMX
6/275 (2.18%)
3/35 (8.6%)
3/240 (1.25%)
0.0290
Comorbidities of chronic lung disease
83/275 (30.2%)
22/35 (62.9%)
61/240 (25.5%)
<0.0001
Number of PSL ≥5 mg users
115/275 (41.8%)
15/35 (42.9%)
100/240 (41.7%)
1
MTX use
163/275 (59.3%)
19/35 (54.3%)
144/240 (60.0%)
0.582
Diabetes mellitus (%)
33/275 (33%)
7/35 (20.0%)
26/240 (10.8%)
0.1582
Initiation of bDMARD/tsDMARD before 2010
123/275 (44.7%)
23/35 (65.7%)
100/240 (41.7%)
0.0102
DAS28: disease activity score including 28-joint count; CRP: C-reactive protein; bDMARD: biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drug; tsDMARDs: targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug; MTX: methotrexate; TMP-SMX: trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. Values are median (interquartile (IQR)). The values were determined using the nonparametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test and Fisher’s exact test. .
