Persistence with biological drugs in patients treated in rheumatology practices in Germany

This study included patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PA), or ankylosing spondylitis (AS) who received a first prescription of biological drugs between 2008 and 2016 (index date) in 21 rheumatology practices in Germany (n = 4925; Disease Analyzer database). The main outcome measure was the rate of persistence within 5 years of the index date. Kaplan–Meier analyses were performed to study treatment persistence as a function of diagnosis, gender and age. A Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to e stimate the relationship between non-persistence and diagnosis, gender, age, and comorbidities. After 5 years of follow-up, the rate of persistence was 31.8% in patients with RA, 35.2% in those with AS, and 33.2% in those with PA (log-rankp value  = 0.028). Furthermore, 33.8% of men and 31.9% of women were persistent (log-rankp value  = 0.035). The rate of persistence was 20.8%, 27.9%, 33.0%, 36.6%, 35.2%, and 32.0% in people aged ≤ 30, 31–40, 41–50, 51–60, 61–70, and>  70 years, respectively (log-rankp value  = 0.002). The risk of discontinuation was lower in participants diagnosed with AS than in those diagnosed with RA [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.87; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.79–0.96]. In addition, patients aged ≤ 30 years were more likely to discontinue their biological therapy than th ose aged>  70 years (HR = 1.29; 95% CI 1.10–1.52). Persistence with biological drugs ...
Source: Rheumatology International - Category: Rheumatology Source Type: research