Table 1

Reasons for exclusion of articles based on titles/abstracts or full text articles

Reason for exclusion	Abstracts N = 733	Articles N = 123
Studies that did not specifically address RA	120	8
Studies that researched the (cost) effectiveness/efficacy/safety/complications of (new) RA medicine, a specific diet, or treatment options for comorbidities	234	26
Case reports	30	0
Patients younger than 18 years were studied	41	0
Care was not offered by a rheumatologist or specialised RA nurse	48	2
Descriptive studies about RA	79	11
Improvement studies (disease management of RA excluded)	33	2
Monitoring properties of an instrument (sensitivity/specificity) were examined or in-vitro research	27	16
Total	612	67