Treatment Patterns of Rheumatoid Arthritis in Japanese Hospitals and Predictors of the Initiation of Biologic Agents.

CONCLUSIONS: The lower likelihood of elderly patients to be initiated biologic treatment might be explained by the risk aversion of Japanese physicians' and patients who are afraid of the potential side effects of biologics. This finding is also consistent with the notion of an age bias that impedes elderly patients from optimal access to biologic treatment. Because claims data do not contain clinical parameters such as disease activity the results should be validated in a clinical context. PMID: 27647105 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Current Medical Research and Opinion - Category: Research Tags: Curr Med Res Opin Source Type: research