Baseline comorbidities in a population-based cohort of rheumatoid arthritis receiving biological therapy: Data from the Australian Rheumatology Association database

Briggs, Andrew; March, L.; Lassere, M.; Reid, C.; Henderson, L.; Murphy, B.; van den Haak, R.; Rischin, A.; Staples, M.; Buchbinder, R.

doi:10.1155/2009/861481

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Access Status

Open access

Authors

Briggs, Andrew

March, L.

Lassere, M.

Reid, C.

Henderson, L.

Murphy, B.

van den Haak, R.

Rischin, A.

Staples, M.

Buchbinder, R.

Date

2009

Type

Journal Article

Metadata

Show full item record

Citation

Briggs, A. and March, L. and Lassere, M. and Reid, C. and Henderson, L. and Murphy, B. and van den Haak, R. et al. 2009. Baseline comorbidities in a population-based cohort of rheumatoid arthritis receiving biological therapy: Data from the Australian Rheumatology Association database. International Journal of Rheumatology. 2009: Article ID 861481.

Source Title

International Journal of Rheumatology

DOI

10.1155/2009/861481

ISSN

1687-9260

School

School of Physiotherapy and Exercise Science

Remarks

This article is published under the Open Access publishing model and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Please refer to the licence to obtain terms for any further reuse or distribution of this work

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/39887

Collection

Curtin Research Publications

Abstract

Aims. To describe the baseline characteristics of an Australian population-based cohort of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients commencing biological therapy. Methods. Descriptive analysis from the Australian Rheumatology Association Database (ARAD). Results. Up to October 2006, there were 681 RA patients taking biologics enrolled in ARAD. Baseline data were available for 624 (72% female, mean (SD) age 57.0 (12.5) years). Of these, 59.5% reported at least one comorbid condition, most commonly hypertension (35.7%) and osteoporosis (30.4%); 61 (9.8%) had a history of malignancy (35 nonmelanoma skin, 5 breast, 4 bowel, 5 cervix, 3 melanoma, 3 prostate and 1 each of lip, lung, myeloma, testis, uterus, vagina). Self-reported infections within the previous 6 months were common (71.5%). Conclusions. History of comorbidities, including recent infections, is common among Australian RA patients commencing biologics, and 10% have a history of malignancy. This may impact future evaluations of health outcomes among this population, including attribution of adverse events of biologic therapy.