Long-term morbidity, mortality, and economics of rheumatoid arthritis

How many life years are lost in patients with rheumatoid arthritis? Secular cause‐specific and all‐cause mortality in rheumatoid arthritis, and their predictors in a long‐term Australian cohort study

“…In 1963, Reah 11 reported up to an 18-year reduction in both males and females from a UK hospital clinic population from the 1950s. In 2001, Wong et al 12 found that, compared with a life expectancy of 22.0 years for the general population, this Arthritis, Rheumatism, and Aging Medical Information System Post-Marketing Surveillance cohort had a life expectancy of 18.6 years.…”

Outcomes of a Rheumatoid Arthritis Disease Therapy Management Program Focusing on Medication Adherence

“…RA is associated with significant levels of morbidity and mortality and has a significant impact on total health care costs. 2,3 Patients with moderate to severe RA have benefited from the availability of injectable biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), which include the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antagonists ( 4 However, the full benefit of biological DMARDs can be achieved only if patients adhere to and continue with the prescribed medication regimen.…”

Klotho—a Common Link in Physiological and Rheumatoid Arthritis-Related Aging of Human CD4+ Lymphocytes

“…One of the immune system aberrations associated with advanced age is an increasing frequency of autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA) 3 -a chronic, inflammatory disease with very high impact on the quality of life of a huge proportion (ϳ1%) of world population, permanently crippling ϳ30% of sufferers (21). Estimated lifespan of RA patients is 10 -15 years shorter than that of healthy age-matched cohort (21). The disease manifests itself as proliferative inflammation of the intraarticular synovial tissue and at its advanced stages is usually involving progressive destruction of multiple symmetric joints and adjacent bones.…”