LAUSR

Background: Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) has been a huge public health issue among the Chinese population, but little is known about the current treatments among RA patients, especially with different disease activity levels. Objectives: To describe the baseline characteristics among all RA patients registered in the Chinese Registry of rhEumatoiD arthrITis (CREDIT) and the treatment patterns by patients’ disease status. Methods: A total of 25,191 RA patients registered in CREDIT from Nov, 2016 to Apr, 2018 were enrolled. Patients’ baseline characteristics of demographics, disease characteristics, comorbidities, as well as treatment agents for RA were abstracted for analysis. Results: The mean age of patients was 53.0 years and 79.9% of them were female. The median disease duration from diagnosis was 2.0 years. The proportions of moderate/high disease activity according to the Disease Activity Score-28 joint count using C-reactive protein (DAS28-CRP>3.2) and Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI>10) were 76.1% and 81.7%, respectively. Among those patients with treatment records, a similar conventional systematic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (cDMARDs) usage was observed in remission/low activity patients and moderate/high activity patients categorized by DAS28-CRP. The results showed that 1639 (29.9%) remission/low activity patients and 4948 (28.3%) moderate/high activity patients received csDMARD monotherapy, while more combination therapies were prescribed in both groups (57.2% vs 55.1%, respectively). Furthermore, 337 (6.2%) patients received biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) in remission/low activity group, while 1021 (5.9%) patients received bDMARDs in moderate/high activity group. In terms of tsDMARDs (only tofacitinib was approved in China), the proportions of usage were lower for remission/low activity patients (0.2%) than for the moderate/high activity patients (0.3%). On the other hand, the proportion of glucocorticoids usage in remission/low activity patients (15.5%) was lower than in moderate/ high activity patients (21.3%). Conclusion: Over three-quarters of RA patients registered in CREDIT were in moderate/high disease activity. csDMARDs are the most frequently used medications for RA in China. Disclosure of Interests: Nan Jiang: None declared, Mengtao Li: None declared, Yanhong Wang: None declared, Jiuliang Zhao: None declared, Qian Wang: None declared, Xinping Tian: None declared, Hanjun Wu Employee of: Employee of Eli Lilly & Co., Xiao Ma Employee of: Eli lilly Employee, Lujing Zhan Employee of: Employee of Eli Lilly & Co., Xiaofeng Zeng: None declared