ArticleArthritis care & research2011
Merging Veterans Affairs rheumatoid arthritis registry and pharmacy data to assess methotrexate adherence and disease activity in clinical practice.
Article in Arthritis care & research, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 52 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
52 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Adherence to the antirheumatic drugs: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Characteristics and long-term outcomes of patients with rheumatoid arthritis and concurrent calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease.Seminars in arthritis and rheumatism · 2026Article
- Adipokines and Associations With Incident Osteoporotic Fracture in Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis.Arthritis care & research · 2026Article
- Heterogeneity in the association of genetic risk for RA and resultant RA phenotypes.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- Non-TNFi biologic and targeted synthetic DMARDs in rheumatoid arthritis-associated interstitial lung disease: A propensity score-matched, active-comparator, new-user study.Seminars in arthritis and rheumatism · 2025Article
- Medication Adherence and Illness Perception in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: The Mediating Effect of Self-Efficacy.Journal of musculoskeletal & neuronal interactions · 2025Article
- Artificial intelligence as an assistant for studying treatment response in rheumatoid arthritis.Seminars in arthritis and rheumatism · 2025Article
- The Veterans Affairs Rheumatoid Arthritis Registry: A unique population in rheumatoid arthritis research.Seminars in arthritis and rheumatism · 2025Review
- Treatment with Targeted Therapy in Patients with Psoriatic Arthritis and Inadequate Response to Methotrexate: Proposal for a Rational Strategy.Rheumatology and therapy · 2024Article
- Associations Between Adiponectin and the Development of Diabetes in Rheumatoid Arthritis.The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2024Article
- Antibodies to Malondialdehyde-Acetaldehyde Adduct Are Associated With Prevalent and Incident Rheumatoid Arthritis-Associated Interstitial Lung Disease in US Veterans.Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2024Article
- Plasma Matrix Metalloproteinase Concentrations and Risk of Interstitial Lung Disease in a Prospective Rheumatoid Arthritis Cohort.Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2024Article
- Updating and Validating the Rheumatic Disease Comorbidity Index to Incorporate ICD-10-CM Diagnostic Codes.Arthritis care & research · 2023Article
- Assessment and Prediction of Adherence to Methotrexate Using Three Self-Report Questionnaires in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2023Article
- Circulating Adipokines and Associations With Incident Cardiovascular Disease in Rheumatoid Arthritis.Arthritis care & research · 2023Article
- Impact of csDMARDs adherence on clinical remission in patients with new-onset inflammatory arthritis: a prospective cohort study from the ELECTRA database.Therapeutic advances in musculoskeletal disease · 2023Article
- Adherence to methotrexate and associated factors considering social desirability in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a multicenter cross-sectional study.BMC rheumatology · 2022Article
- Elevations in adipocytokines and mortality in rheumatoid arthritis.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2022Article
- Adipocytokines and achievement of low disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis.Seminars in arthritis and rheumatism · 2022Article
- Investigating changes in disease activity as a mediator of cardiovascular risk reduction with methotrexate use in rheumatoid arthritis.Annals of the rheumatic diseases · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveThe Veterans Affairs (VA) Rheumatoid Arthritis (VARA) registry and the VA Pharmacy Benefits Management database were linked to determine the association of methotrexate (MTX) adherence with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease activity.
methodsFor each patient, the medication possession ratio (MPR) was calculated for the first episode of MTX exposure of a duration of ≥12 weeks for both new and established MTX users. High MTX adherence was defined as an MPR ≥0.80 and low MTX adherence was defined as an MPR <0.80. For each patient, the mean Disease Activity Score with 28 joints (DAS28) score, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and C-reaction protein (CRP) level observed during registry followup were compared in high- versus low-adherence groups.
resultsIn 455 RA patients, the prescribed doses of MTX (mean ± SD 16 ± 4 mg versus 16 ± 4 mg; P = 0.6) were similar in high-adherence patients (n = 370) in comparison to low-adherence patients (n = 85). However, the actual observed MTX doses taken by patients were significantly higher in the high-adherence group (mean ± SD 16 ± 5 mg versus 11 ± 3 mg; P < 0.001). DAS28 (mean ± SD 3.6 ± 1.2 versus 3.9 ± 1.5; P < 0.02), ESR (mean ± SD 24 ± 18 versus 29 ± 24 mm/hour; P = 0.05), and CRP level (mean ± SD 1.2 ± 1.3 versus 1.6 ± 1.5 mg/dl; P < 0.03) were lower in the high-adherence group compared to those with low MTX adherence. These variances were not explained by differences in baseline demographic features, concurrent treatments, or whether MTX was initiated before or after VARA enrollment.
conclusionHigh MTX adherence was associated with improved clinical outcomes in RA patients treated with MTX. Adjustment for potential confounders did not alter the estimated effect of adherence. These results demonstrate the advantages of being able to merge clinical observations with pharmacy databases to evaluate antirheumatic drugs in clinical practice.
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