PLoS ONE (Jan 2022)

Lower odds of remission among women with rheumatoid arthritis: A cohort study in the Swiss Clinical Quality Management cohort.

  • Enriqueta Vallejo-Yagüe,
  • Julia N Pfund,
  • Theresa Burkard,
  • Carole Clair,
  • Raphael Micheroli,
  • Burkhard Möller,
  • Axel Finckh,
  • Andrea M Burden

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275026
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 17, no. 10
p. e0275026

Abstract

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ObjectiveTo compare the likelihood of achieving remission between men and women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) after starting their first biologic or targeted synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (b/tsDMARD).MethodsThis cohort study in the Swiss Clinical Quality Management in Rheumatic Diseases (SCQM) registry included RA patients starting their first b/tsDMARD (1997-31/04/2018). The odds of achieving remission at ≤12-months, defined by disease activity score 28-joints (DAS28) ResultsThe study included 2839 (76.3%) women and 883 (23.7%) men with RA. Compared to women, men were older at diagnosis and b/tsDMARD start, but had shorter time from diagnosis to b/tsDMARD (3.4 versus 5.0 years, pConclusionMen started b/tsDMARD earlier than women, particularly regarding disease duration and disease activity (DAS28), and had higher odds of reaching remission. This highlights the importance of early initiation of second line treatments, and suggests to target an earlier stage of disease in women to match the benefits observed in men.