Objective. Regular physical activity is associated with decreased morbidity and mortality. Traditionally, patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have been advised to limit physical exercise. We studied the prevalence of physical activity and associations with demographic and disease-related variables in patients with RA from 21 countries. patients from 58 sites in 21 countries were enrolled in QUEST-RA: 79% were women, >90% were white, mean age was 57 years, and mean disease duration was 11.6 years. Only 13.8% of all patients reported physical exercise >3 times weekly. The majority of the patients were physically inactive with no regular weekly exercise: >80% in 7 countries, 60 -80% in 12 countries, and 45% and 29% in 2 countries, respectively. Physical inactivity was associated with female sex, older age, lower education, obesity, comorbidity, low functional capacity, and higher levels of disease activity, pain, and fatigue. Conclusion. In many countries, a low proportion of patients with RA exercise. These data may alert rheumatologists to motivate their patients to increase physical activity levels.

Objective:To analyse associations between the clinical status of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and the gross domestic product (GDP) of their resident country.Methods:The Quantitative Standard Monitoring of Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (QUEST–RA) cohort includes clinical and questionnaire data from 6004 patients who were seen in usual care at 70 rheumatology clinics in 25 countries as of April 2008, including 18 European countries. Demographic variables, clinical characteristics, RA disease activity measures, including the disease activity score in 28 joints (DAS28), and treatment-related variables were analysed according to GDP per capita, including 14 “high GDP” countries with GDP per capita greater than US$24 000 and 11 “low GDP” countries with GDP per capita less than US$11 000.Results:Disease activity DAS28 ranged between 3.1 and 6.0 among the 25 countries and was significantly associated with GDP (r  =  −0.78, 95% CI −0.56 to −0.90, r2  =  61%). Disease activity levels differed substantially between “high GDP” and “low GDP” countries at much greater levels than according to whether patients were currently taking or not taking methotrexate, prednisone and/or biological agents.Conclusions:The clinical status of patients with RA was correlated significantly with GDP among 25 mostly European countries according to all disease measures, associated only modestly with the current use of antirheumatic medications. The burden of arthritis appears substantially greater in “low GDP” than in “high GDP” countries. These findings may alert healthcare professionals and designers of health policy towards improving the clinical status of patients with RA in all countries.

Risk for amyloidosis in rheumatic diseases is associated with a long-lasting inflammation. To assess possible changes in the incidence of terminal uraemia due to amyloidosis associated with rheumatic diseases on a nationwide basis, we scrutinised the files of the Finnish Registry for Kidney Diseases for patients suffering from amyloidosis associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), ankylosing spondylitis (AS) or juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) over the period 1995-2008. The registry has an estimated 97-99% coverage of all patients accepted for renal replacement therapy (RRT) in the country. Data on the consumption of antirheumatic drugs were collected from two sources: the Social Insurance Institution's Drug Reimbursement Register, and the Sales Register of the National Agency for Medicines from the above period. Altogether 264 cases were identified. Two hundred twenty-nine of them had RA, 15 AS and 20 JIA. When the total annual number of new admissions to RRT varied between 20 and 37 at the end of 1990s, it was under half of that from 2002 onwards. Over this period, the number of users of low-dose methotrexate (MTX) has increased 3.6-fold, the drug being the most frequently used disease modifying anti-rheumatic drug in Finland. The present nationwide series is the first to show that the incidence of end-stage renal disease due to amyloidosis associated with rheumatic diseases is decreasing. An obvious reason for this is intensive anti-rheumatic drug therapy.

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The treatment as-needed regimen used in this study cohort led to delayed RTX retreatment and disease flare in a significant proportion of patients. A regular retreatment every 6 months, at least, after the first 2 treatment courses in patients who are not in remission could allow better control of disease activity.