ArticleRMD open2025
Work loss in patients with rheumatoid arthritis treated with abatacept, rituximab, tocilizumab or TNF inhibitors: a nationwide direct drug-to-drug comparison.
Article in RMD open, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Learning to live with RA as an unwelcome companion-patients' experiences after 1 to 2 years of DMARD treatment.EULAR rheumatology open · 2026Article
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PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo compare work loss after starting tumour necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi), rituximab, abatacept or tocilizumab in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
methodsWe used data from the Swedish Rheumatology Quality Register to identify patients aged 19-62 years who were treated with TNFi (n=15 093), rituximab (n=2123), abatacept (n=1877) or tocilizumab (n=1720) between 2007 and 2020. Data on work loss (0-365 days per year) from sick leave and disability pension were retrieved from linkage to the Social Insurance Agency. Patients in the different treatment arms were balanced regarding baseline covariates using inverse probability weighting (IPTW).
resultsWork loss increased for patients with RA until drug treatment initiation, reached a peak in the month after treatment initiation and then levelled off. Following IPTW, at 3 years before starting the treatment, there were no statistically significant differences in the mean annual adjusted work loss days between rituximab, abatacept or tocilizumab vs TNFi (mean difference vs TNFi: rituximab 1.1 days, 95% CI -4.5 to 6.7; abatacept 3.3, 95% CI -2.6 to 9.2; tocilizumab 1.2, 95% CI -4.9 to 7.3). At 3 years after starting the treatment (latest January 2021), there were also no statistically significant differences in the mean annual adjusted work loss days (mean difference: rituximab -4.8 days, 95% CI -11.3 to 1.7; abatacept 5.3, 95% CI -1.8 to 12.3; tocilizumab -0.6, 95% CI -7.7 to 6.5).
conclusionsTaking channelling into account, patients with RA treated with TNFi, rituximab, abatacept or tocilizumab had similar trajectories of work loss from sick leave and disability pension until treatment initiation, and similar trend breaks and plateau 3 years thereafter.
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