TY - JOUR
T1 - Diagnostic delay in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis
T2 - results from the Danish nationwide DANBIO registry
AU - Sørensen, Jan
AU - Hetland, Merete Lund
AU - All Departments of Rheumatology in Denmark
N1 - Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.
PY - 2015/3/1
Y1 - 2015/3/1
N2 - BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Early diagnosis of inflammatory rheumatic diseases is important in order to improve long-term outcome. We studied whether delay in diagnosis (time between onset of symptoms and establishment of diagnosis) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PSA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) changed from year 2000 to 2011.METHODS: Month and year of initial symptoms and diagnosis, gender, hospital, year of birth and date of first data entry were obtained for 13,721 patients with RA, PSA or AS who had been registered in the DANBIO registry. Time between symptom onset and diagnosis was modelled using generalised linear regression to predict the average duration for each calendar year of initial symptoms with adjustments for gender, year of birth and date of DANBIO entry.RESULTS: Patients with valid data (RA: 10,416 (73%); PSA: 1970 (68%); AS: 1335 (65%)) did not differ significantly from the whole DANBIO population, except more missing data in early years. The regression model showed that the mean duration from initial symptoms to diagnosis for RA, PSA and AS declined steadily from 30, 53 and 66 months (year 2000), respectively, to 3-4 months (year 2011). Sensitivity analyses including patients who were included after 2005, patients who had received biological treatment or had symptom onset less than 2 and 5 years prior to first entry into DANBIO showed similar results.CONCLUSION: Since the year 2000, a significant reduction in diagnostic delay was observed in this large cohort of patients with RA, PSA or AS, probably reflecting a stronger awareness of the importance of early diagnosis.
AB - BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Early diagnosis of inflammatory rheumatic diseases is important in order to improve long-term outcome. We studied whether delay in diagnosis (time between onset of symptoms and establishment of diagnosis) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PSA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) changed from year 2000 to 2011.METHODS: Month and year of initial symptoms and diagnosis, gender, hospital, year of birth and date of first data entry were obtained for 13,721 patients with RA, PSA or AS who had been registered in the DANBIO registry. Time between symptom onset and diagnosis was modelled using generalised linear regression to predict the average duration for each calendar year of initial symptoms with adjustments for gender, year of birth and date of DANBIO entry.RESULTS: Patients with valid data (RA: 10,416 (73%); PSA: 1970 (68%); AS: 1335 (65%)) did not differ significantly from the whole DANBIO population, except more missing data in early years. The regression model showed that the mean duration from initial symptoms to diagnosis for RA, PSA and AS declined steadily from 30, 53 and 66 months (year 2000), respectively, to 3-4 months (year 2011). Sensitivity analyses including patients who were included after 2005, patients who had received biological treatment or had symptom onset less than 2 and 5 years prior to first entry into DANBIO showed similar results.CONCLUSION: Since the year 2000, a significant reduction in diagnostic delay was observed in this large cohort of patients with RA, PSA or AS, probably reflecting a stronger awareness of the importance of early diagnosis.
KW - Adolescent
KW - Adult
KW - Aged
KW - Aged, 80 and over
KW - Antirheumatic Agents
KW - Arthritis, Psoriatic
KW - Arthritis, Rheumatoid
KW - Delayed Diagnosis
KW - Denmark
KW - Female
KW - Humans
KW - Linear Models
KW - Male
KW - Middle Aged
KW - Registries
KW - Spondylitis, Ankylosing
KW - Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha
KW - Young Adult
U2 - 10.1136/annrheumdis-2013-204867
DO - 10.1136/annrheumdis-2013-204867
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 24534758
SN - 0003-4967
VL - 74
SP - 1
EP - 7
JO - Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases
JF - Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases
IS - 3
M1 - e12
ER -