Table 1

Some earlier studies of mortality in RA

		Patients (n)	Disease duration at inclusion (y) mean	Years of follow up	Deaths (n)	SMR	Selection	Period of inclusion
1984	Vandenbroucke	209	men 7.2	25	165	—	Rheumatology clinic	1954–1957
	Holland		women 8.5
1984	Prior	489	—	3–18	199	300	Rheumatology clinic	1964–1978
	UK
1986	Mitchell	805	10	12	233	150	Rheumatology clinic	1966–1974
	USA, Canada
1990	Reilly	100	0.3	25	63	140	Rheumatology clinic	1957–1963
	UK
1993	Jacobsson	172	<2	2–25	79	130	population	1965–1989
	USA
1994	Pincus	75	11.2	15	34	160	Rheumatology clinic	1973
	USA
1994	Wolfe	3501	7.3–14.2	9–35	922	230	Rheumatology clinic	1965–1990
	USA

SMR = standardised mortality ratio.