Baseline demographic and disease characteristics
| Characteristics | DAS-driven therapy(n = 234) | Routine care(n = 201) | p Value |
| Age (years)* | 54 (13) | 54 (15) | 0.939 |
| Female sex (%) | 70 | 73 | 0.551 |
| Symptom duration (years)† | 0.5 (0.3–1.0) | 0.4 (0.3–0.6) | 0.016 |
| Rheumatoid factor positive (%) | 66 | 42 | <0.001 |
| Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (mm/h)† | 39 (22–58) | 31 (20–51) | 0.033 |
| Disease Activity Score in 28 joints* | 6.1 (1.0) | 5.7 (1.0) | <0.001 |
| Health Assessment Questionnaire* | 1.4 (0.7) | 1.4 (0.7) | 0.708 |
| Total Sharp/van der Heijde score | |||
| Median (IQR) | 4.0 (1.5–8.5) | 2.0 (0.5–5.0) | <0.001 |
| Mean (SD) | 6.7 (8.2) | 4.1 (6.7) | |
| Erosion score | |||
| Median (IQR) | 2.0 (0.5–4.5) | 1.0 (0.0–3.0) | <0.001 |
| Mean (SD) | 3.7 (5.3) | 2.4 (4.3) | |
| Narrowing score | |||
| Median (IQR) | 0.0 (0.0–2.0) | 1.5 (0.0–4.3) | <0.001 |
| Mean (SD) | 3.0 (4.1) | 1.7 (3.1) | |
| Erosive (%) | 71 | 53 | <0.001 |
| Predicted radiographic progression rate† | 7.0 (2.0–20.0) | 4.4 (0.9–13.2) | 0.001 |
*Mean (standard deviation); †median (interquartile range).
DAS, Disease Activity Score.