Footnotes

• Funding This study was funded by a grant of the Dutch College of Health Insurances (College Voor Zorgverzekeringen) with additional funding provided by Schering-Plough, B V and Centocor. The authors, not the sponsors, were responsible for the study design, the collection, analyses and interpretation of all data, the writing of this article and the decision to publish.

• Patient consent Obtained.

• Ethics approval The BeSt study was approved by the medical ethical committees of all participating centres.

• Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.