RESEARCH - RA is milder in the new millennium: health status in patients with RA 1994–2004

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Published Online First: 24 January 2008. doi:10.1136/ard.2007.084673

ls of the Rheumatic Diseases 2008;67:1710-1715

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CLINICAL AND EPIDEMIOLOGICAL RESEARCH

Rheumatoid arthritis is milder in the new millennium: health status in

patients with rheumatoid arthritis 1994–2004

T Uhlig 1, T Heiberg 2, P Mowinckel 1, T K Kvien 1

1 Department of Rheumatology, Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Oslo, Norway

2 Department of Research and Education, Ullevål University Hospital,

Oslo, Norway

Objectives: During the last decades major advances have occurred in

the treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and

improvements in the burden of the disease have been suggested. We

examined whether there was a secular change towards less severe

disease from 1994 to 2004 among patients within the representative

setting of the Oslo Rheumatoid Arthritis Register (ORAR).

Methods: All living patients in the ORAR received a postal

questionnaire in 1994, 1996, 2001 and 2004, including the Modified

Health Assessment Questionnaire (MHAQ), SF-36, Arthritis Impact

Measurement Scales 2 (AIMS2) and visual analogue scales for the

patient global assessment of disease severity, pain and fatigue. A

mixed model approach was used for longitudinal analysis adjusting for

sex, age, co-morbidity, and for disease duration and DMARD if

indicated.

Results: The numbers of respondents aged between 20 and 79 years in

1994, 1996, 2001 and 2004 were 931, 1025, 829 and 914 patients with

similar demographic characteristics (mean age in 1994 was 60.6 years,

mean disease duration 12.6 years, 78% females). Health status in the

population with RA was consistently improved in all dimensions of

health, and this improvement was statistically significant for the

physical dimension, global health and pain over the 10-year period

until 2004. Both year of examination and year of disease onset had an

effect on measures of longitudinal health status outcome.

Conclusions: Health status in RA improved from 1994 to 2004, probably

due to access to better and more aggressive threatments.

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http://ard.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/67/12/1710?etoc

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