A multi-center, observational study shows high proportion of Australian rheumatoid arthritis patients have inadequate disease control

Abstract

Cross-sectional assessment of this large cohort of Australian RA patients found a large proportion remain in moderate or high disease activity; suggesting a considerable evidence-practice gap. Improvement in disease control in this group may reduce future health burdens.

Are We Able to Suppress Disease Activity Adequately in Patients With Established Rheumatoid Arthritis? An Observational and Cross-Sectional Study

“…We determined that overall remission and LDA were achieved in half of the study sample. In two reports from a developed country, 8,9 the proportions of patients with MDA and HDA were lower than ours, but still quite high by 39% (number of study population=5,686) and 37.5% (number of study population=4,037), respectively. In a report on a multicenter study from Turkey that used the Turkish League Against Rheumatism RA registry data, 4 the overall proportion of patients with MDA and HDA was reported to be 68% (number of study population=2,539).…”

Clinical profile of 266 Filipino patients with rheumatoid arthritis included in the rheumatoid arthritis database and registry (RADAR) of the Philippine General Hospital

“…In a related note, a large cohort of Australian RA patients in a recent report spanning 11 years of observation, showed 40% achieving remission, but about 30% were noted to be in moderate disease activity despite access to tertiary care. They concluded that a considerable evidence–practice gap exists in their setting …”

The CEDAR Study: A Longitudinal Study of the Clinical Effects of Conventional DMARDs and Biologic DMARDs in Australian Rheumatology Practice

“…The study was conducted by the OPAL-QUMI using the clinical software program Audit4 (described previously) [7]. Deidentified data was sourced from 20 participating rheumatology practices comprising 42 rheumatologists across Australia.…”

“…The OPAL-QUMI (Optimising Patient outcomes in Australian rheumatoLogy-Quality Use of Medicines Initiative) consortium [7] is a point of care-derived observational registry database with clinical data recorded by Australian rheumatologists in real-time during routine clinical encounters. Cross-sectional data from OPAL has helped to provide insights into the reasons why a proportion of RA patients remain in moderate disease activity using a treat-to-target strategy [8].…”