Demographic features and indices of disease activity in two cohorts of RA patients (medians and range at outset are shown)
| Deprivation category | Gold cohort 1980s (n=440) | Sulphasalazine cohort 1990–1993 (n=374) | |||||||
| 1 and 2 | 3, 4 and 5 | 6 and 7 | Kruskal-Wallis | 1 and 2 | 3, 4 and 5 | 6 and 7 | Kruskal-Wallis | ||
| Age (y) | 58 (21–80) | 57 (26–86) | 58 (19–81) | 0.73 | 60 (28–80) | 60 (27–80) | 60 (21–87) | 0.89 | |
| Disease duration (y) | 4 (1–35) | 7 (1–89) | 6.6 (1–40) | 0.29 | 6 (1–42) | 8 (1–40) | 7 (1–45) | 0.90 | |
| Weight (kg) | 55 (41–99) | 62 (21–99) | 61 (32–99) | p<0.001 | — | — | — | — | |
| Pain score | 1.8 (0.4–2.8) | 2.0 (0.3–3) | 1.9 (0.7–3) | 0.50 | 3 (1–4) | 3 (0–4) | 3 (1–4) | 0.93 | |
| Morning stiffness (min) | 60 (0–720) | 120 (0–720) | 120 (0–720) | p<0.05 | 90 (0–720) | 60 (0–720) | 60 (0–720) | 0.92 | |
| Articular index | 12 (0–29) | 13 (0–39) | 14 (0–42) | 0.17 | NA | NA | NA | — | |
| ESR (mm 1st h) | 57 (11–150) | 58 (2–124) | 52 (0–150) | 0.66 | 54 (15–150) | 50 (2–131) | 41 (0–150) | 0.11 | |
| CRP (mg/l) | 37 (3–256) | 41 (4–255) | 34 (6–255) | 0.70 | 31 (3–143) | 27 (3–233) | 26 (4–212) | 0.53 | |
| HAQ | 1.75 (0.4–2.88) | 2.0 (0–3) | 2.0 (0.12–3) | p<0.05 | 1.62 (0–2.88) | 1.88 (0.12–3) | 2.12 (0–3) | p=0.09 | |