Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with rheumatic disease with COVID-19 (n=600)
| N (%) | |
| Region | |
| Region of the Americas: North | 340 (57) |
| Region of the Americas: South | 16 (3) |
| European region | 218 (36) |
| African region | <5 (<1) |
| Eastern Mediterranean region | 11 (2) |
| South-East Asian region | <5 (<1) |
| Western Pacific region | 13 (2) |
| Female | 423 (71) |
| Age (years) | |
| 18–29 | 32 (5) |
| 30–49 | 169 (28) |
| 50–65 | 229 (38) |
| >65 | 170 (28) |
| Median (IQR) | 56 (45–67) |
| Most common rheumatic disease diagnoses* | |
| Rheumatoid arthritis | 230 (38) |
| Systemic lupus erythematosus | 85 (14) |
| Psoriatic arthritis | 74 (12) |
| Axial spondyloarthritis or other spondyloarthritis | 48 (8) |
| Vasculitis | 44 (7) |
| Sjögren's syndrome | 28 (5) |
| Other inflammatory arthritis | 21 (4) |
| Inflammatory myopathy | 20 (3) |
| Gout | 19 (3) |
| Systemic sclerosis | 16 (3) |
| Polymyalgia rheumatica | 12 (2) |
| Sarcoidosis | 10 (2) |
| Other | 28 (5) |
| Most common comorbidities | |
| Hypertension | 199 (33) |
| Lung disease† | 127 (21) |
| Diabetes | 69 (12) |
| Cardiovascular disease | 63 (11) |
| Chronic renal insufficiency/end-stage renal disease | 40 (7) |
| Disease activity (n=575) | |
| Remission | 173 (30) |
| Minimal or low disease activity | 286 (50) |
| Moderate disease activity | 102 (18) |
| Severe or high disease activity | 14 (2) |
| Smoking status (n=518) | |
| Ever | 129 (25) |
| Never | 389 (75) |
| Medication prior to COVID-19 diagnosis‡ | |
| No DMARD | 97 (16) |
| csDMARD only, including antimalarial therapy | 272 (45) |
| csDMARD only, excluding antimalarial therapy | 220 (37) |
| Antimalarial, with or without other DMARD | 130 (22) |
| Antimalarial only | 52 (9) |
| b/tsDMARDs only | 107 (18) |
| csDMARD+b/tsDMARD combination therapy | 124 (21) |
| NSAIDs (n=531) | 111 (21) |
| Prednisone-equivalent glucocorticoids (n=592) | |
| None | 403 (68) |
| 1–9 mg/day | 125 (21) |
| >10 mg/day | 64 (11) |
| Hospitalised | 277 (46) |
| Deceased | 55 (9) |
| Reported days from onset to resolution or death (n=275), median (IQR) | 13 (8–17) |
N (column %) for categorical variables unless otherwise noted.
Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding.
*Cases could have more than one disease diagnosis. ‘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.
†Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, interstitial lung disease or other not specified.
‡csDMARD medications included: antimalarials (hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine), azathioprine, cyclophosphamide, cyclosporine, 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 DMARD; csDMARD, conventional synthetic DMARD; DMARD, disease-modifying antirheumatic drug; IL, interleukin; NSAID, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug; TNF, tumour necrosis factor.