Demographic and clinical factors of patients with rheumatic disease diagnosed with COVID-19 by hospitalisation status
| Not hospitalised n=323 | Hospitalised n=277 | P value | |
| Female | 238 (74%) | 185 (67%) | 0.10 |
| Age group (years) | <0.01 | ||
| <30 | 25 (8%) | 7 (3%) | |
| 30–49 | 113 (35%) | 56 (20%) | |
| 50–65 | 134 (41%) | 95 (34%) | |
| >65 | 51 (16%) | 119 (43%) | |
| Median (IQR), years | 52 (42–60) | 62 (51–71) | <0.01 |
| Most common rheumatic disease diagnoses† | <0.01 | ||
| Rheumatoid arthritis | 121 (37%) | 104 (38%) | |
| Systemic lupus erythematosus | 37 (11%) | 48 (17%) | |
| Psoriatic arthritis | 52 (16%) | 22 (8%) | |
| Axial spondyloarthritis or other spondyloarthritis | 32 (10%) | 16 (6%) | |
| Vasculitis | 15 (5%) | 24 (9%) | |
| Other | 66 (20%) | 63 (23%) | |
| Most common comorbidities | |||
| Hypertension | 75 (23%) | 124 (45%) | <0.01 |
| Lung disease* | 44 (14%) | 83 (30%) | <0.01 |
| Diabetes | 21 (7%) | 48 (17%) | <0.01 |
| Cardiovascular disease | 23 (7%) | 40 (14%) | <0.01 |
| Chronic renal insufficiency/end-stage renal disease | 7 (2%) | 33 (12%) | <0.01 |
| Disease activity (n=575) | 0.49 | ||
| Remission | 88 (28) | 85 (32) | |
| Minimal or low disease activity | 157 (50) | 129 (49) | |
| Moderate disease activity | 60 (19) | 42 (16) | |
| Severe or high disease activity | 6 (2) | 8 (3) | |
| Ever smoker (n=518) | 61 (21%) | 68 (30%) | 0.03 |
| Rheumatic disease medication prior to COVID-19 diagnosis‡ | <0.01 | ||
| No DMARD | 45 (14%) | 52 (19%) | |
| csDMARD only | 123 (38%) | 149 (54%) | |
| b/tsDMARDs only | 76 (24%) | 31 (11%) | |
| csDMARD+b/tsDMARD combination therapy | 79 (24%) | 45 (16%) | |
| Any antimalarial therapy | 64 (20%) | 66 (24%) | 0.23 |
| Antimalarial only | 27 (8%) | 25 (9%) | 0.77 |
| NSAIDs (n=531) | 72 (25%) | 39 (16%) | 0.02 |
| Prednisone-equivalent glucocorticoids (n=592) | <0.01 | ||
| None | 241 (75%) | 162 (60%) | |
| 1–9 mg/day | 58 (18%) | 67 (25%) | |
| >10 mg/day | 21 (7%) | 43 (16%) | |
| Reported days from onset to resolution or death (n=275), median (IQR) | 14 (7–16) | 12 (8–17) | 0.72 |
N (column %) for categorical variables unless otherwise noted.
Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding.
P value calculated using χ2 tests for categorical variables and Mann-Whitney U tests for continuous variables.
*Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, interstitial lung disease or other not specified.
†Patients with more than one disease within these five diagnoses were classified as follows: systemic lupus erythematosus>rheumatoid arthritis>psoriatic arthritis>vasculitis>axial/other spondyloarthritis>other. Other rheumatic disease category included (each n<10): undifferentiated connective tissue disease; ocular inflammation; autoinflammatory syndrome; mixed connective tissue disease; antiphospholipid antibody syndrome; calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease; systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis; juvenile idiopathic arthritis, not systemic; IgG4-related disease.
‡csDMARD medications included: antimalarials (hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine), azathioprine, cyclophosphamide, ciclosporin, leflunomide, methotrexate, mycophenolate mofetil/mycophenolic acid, sulfasalazine, tacrolimus; b/tsDMARD included: abatacept, belimumab, CD-20 inhibitors, IL-1 inhibitors, IL-6 inhibitors, IL-12/IL-23 inhibitors, IL-17 inhibitors, anti-TNF and Janus Kinase inhibitors.
b/tsDMARD, biologic or targeted synthetic DMARDs; csDMARD, conventional synthetic DMARD; DMARD, disease-modifying antirheumatic drug; IL, interleukin; NSAID, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; TNF, tumour necrosis factor.