Table 1 Baseline demographic and disease characteristics, treatment and comorbidities between persistent and nonpersistent patients

Socio-demographic?

   Female sex (n (%))

27 (84.4%)

36 (83.7%)

1

   Age at baseline evaluation (years)

36.1 ± 12.6

42.5 ± 13.7

0.04

   Years of education

10.2 ± 3.6

10.1 ± 3.8

0.90

   Low socioeconomic status (n (%))

27 (84.4%)

38 (88.8%)

0.87

   Single (n (%))

17 (53%)

18 (42%)

0.36

Disease characteristics

   Number of American College of Rheumatology criteria

5.3 ± 0.7

5 ± 1.2

0.23

   Time since first symptom (months)

5.5 ± 2.9

5.2 ± 2.7

0.55

   Disease activity score (28 joints)

6.3 ± 1.2

6.2 ± 1.3

0.65

   Health assessment questionnaire (0 to 3)

1.5 ± 0.8

1.5 ± 0.9

0.91

   Physician global assessment of disease activity visual analogue scale (0 to 100)

49.1 ± 23

43.8 ± 20.9

0.30

   Patient pain visual analogue scale (0 to 100)

60.4 ± 24.8

58.6 ± 26

0.76

   Patient overall disease visual analogue scale (0 to 100)

62.1 ± 28

61.1 ± 26.4

0.87

   Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (mm/hour)

36.6 ± 26.8

29.8 ± 18.1

0.19

   C-reactive protein (mg/dl)

3.4 ± 5.1

2.2 ± 2.9

0.17

   Patients with rheumatoid factor (n (%))

23 (71.9%)

30 (69.8%)

1

   Patients with antibodies to cyclic citrullinated peptides (n (%))

22 (68.8%)

29 (69%)^a

1

   Patients with comorbidity (n (%))

12 (38%)

15 (35%)

1

Baseline treatment at the clinic

   Corticosteroid use (n (%))

9 (28.1%)

11 (25.6%)

1

   Number of DMARDs/patient

2 ± 0.7

1.8 ± 0.8

0.36

   Number of drugs for comorbid conditions/patient

1.75 ± 1.3

1.4 ± 0.8

0.40

   Number of total drugs/patient

3.6 ± 1.3

3.4 ± 1.2

0.56

Previous treatment

   Corticosteroid use (n (%))

4 (12.5%)

9 (29.9%)

0.38

   DMARD use (n (%))

11 (34.4%)

12 (27.9%)

0.61

   Number of DMARDs/patient (among users)

1.5 ± 0.5

1.4 ± 0.5

0.86