This study will provide up-to-date estimates of the number of patients who are currently living with rheumatoid arthritis “RA”, their characteristics including other medical conditions that these patients may also suffer. We will also estimate the number of patients newly diagnosed each year with RA since 2005. These figures are key to understanding the burden of RA in the UK. We will use CPRD GOLD and CPRD Aurum to estimate these figures. CPRD Aurum has greater coverage of patients and this will be the first epidemiological study of RA using this database to our knowledge. Also, patients with RA are known to suffer more from heart disease, blood clots and serious infections. This study will therefore also examine the risk factors for these outcomes (such as suffering from overweight, diabetes or smoking) among patients with RA.
Lastly, we will also examine the history of hospitalisation and whether relevant surgery has taken place such as a hip or knee replacement. This may indicate those patients with more severe disease who may benefit from the new treatments.
Given the potentially high disease burden of rheumatoid arthritis “RA”, the objective of this study is to provide the current epidemiology of this disease in the UK. Therefore, we propose that this study will estimate the incidence and prevalence of RA. Yearly, and overall, estimates of incidence will be calculated since 2005 whilst the prevalence will be estimated at the cross-sectional date (31/12/2020); results will be standardised to the UK population (or England and Wales for Aurum). Patient characteristics including comorbidities, comedication and demographics will be estimated at the date of diagnosis (incidence study) and at the cross-sectional date (prevalence study). This study will also provide the distribution of risk factors for cardiovascular events, venous thromboembolism and serious and opportunistic infections given that RA is associated with these harmful outcomes.
Given that both burden and therapeutic options vary by disease severity, this study will also endeavour to classify patients according to disease severity based on available data.
The study will be performed in both CPRD Gold and Aurum and will include HES APC and patient-level Townsend linkages; this will be the first epidemiological study of RA in Aurum and thus will benefit from the wider coverage of the EMIS network.
Incidence of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the UK population by year, by age and by gender; prevalence of RA in the UK population by age and by sex in 2020, using medical codes from CPRD GOLD and Aurum.
Agustin Cerani - Chief Investigator - Galapagos ( GLPG )
Agustin Cerani - Corresponding Applicant - Galapagos ( GLPG )
Ali Charkhi - Collaborator - Galapagos ( GLPG )
Andrew Maguire - Collaborator - EpiFocus Ltd
Claus Andersen - Collaborator - Galapagos ( GLPG )
Mona Khalid - Collaborator - Galapagos ( GLPG )
Monia Zignani - Collaborator - Galapagos ( GLPG )
Raymond Schlienger - Collaborator - Galapagos ( GLPG )
HES Admitted Patient Care;Patient Level Townsend Index