| Male (n = 2741) | Female (n = 7082) | |
| Age, years | 78 (7) | 80 (7) |
| Race:* | ||
| Caucasian | 2535 (93) | 6615 (92) |
| African–American | 189 (7) | 400 (6) |
| Health care utilisation: | ||
| Number of physician visits | 10.1 (7.5) | 10.2 (7.5) |
| Hospitalisations, any cause | 1309 (48) | 3354 (47) |
| Hospitalisations, gout | 71 (2.6) | 193 (2.7) |
| Number of different drugs | 9.9 (5.7) | 11.6 (6.1) |
| Comorbid illnesses | 3.1 (2.6) | 2.9 (2.5) |
| Gout related factors: | ||
| Acute gout diagnoses | 351 (13) | 928 (13) |
| Tophaceous gout diagnoses | 29 (1.1) | 93 (1.3) |
| Nephrolithiasis | 4 (0.2) | 19 (0.3) |
| Interstitial nephritis | 16 (0.6) | 58 (0.8) |
| Number of patients receiving an NSAID | 1138 (42) | 3273 (46) |
| Number of patients receiving colchicine | 351 (13) | 857 (12) |
| Number of patients receiving steroids | 306 (11) | 857 (12) |
| Number of patients with IA injection† | 168 (6) | 586 (8) |
| Nephrologist/rheumatologist as primary prescriber‡ | 149 (5) | 400 (6) |
Baseline characteristics determined based on data from the 12 months prior to the index date. Values are n (%) or mean (SD).
*Other race is less than 1% of the total population.
†Intra-articular injections and aspirations have the same procedure code and thus cannot be distinguished in health care utilisation data.
‡The primary prescriber could not be determined for all patients.
IA, intra-articular; NSAID, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug.