Frequency of Hospitalized Infections Is Reduced in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Who Received Biological and Targeted Synthetic Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs after 2010
Table 4
Background of the patients with bDMARD/tsDMARD initiation before 2010 and from 2010 to 2015.
Variable
Before 2010 ()
from 2010 to 2015 ()
value
Gender, male (%)
24/123 (19.5%)
28/152 (18.42%)
0.8774
Age at starting bDMARD/tsDMARD (IQR)
57 (46–65)
61 (49–70)
0.0185
Disease duration until bDMARD/tsDMARD initiation (months)
67.5 (16.5–162.8)
43 (13–148.8)
0.1632
DAS28-CRP (IQR)
4.83 (4.18–6.01)
4.38 (3.46–5.18)
0.0003
DAS28-ESR (IQR)
5.70 (4.56–6.53)
5.04 (4.21–5.99)
0.0026
Body weight (kg) (IQR)
51.5 (45.2–56.9)
53.0 (47.6–61.4)
0.0738
Number of previous bDMARD/tsDMARD uses (IQR)
1.5 (1-2)
1 (1–2)
0.0017
Prophylaxis with an antituberculosis agent
78/123 (63.4%)
117/152 (77.0%)
0.0163
Prophylaxis with TMP-SMX
4/123 (3.25%)
2/152 (1.32%)
0.4126
Number of PSL ≥5 mg users
70/123 (56.9%)
45/152 (29.6%)
<0.0001
MTX use
76/123 (61.8%)
87/152 (57.2%)
0.1866
Complication of chronic lung disease
33/123 (26.8%)
50/152 (32.9%)
0.2931
Diabetes mellitus (%)
14/123 (11.4%)
19/152 (12.5%)
0.853
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. .
