Fig. 2

Physical disability decreases over time in sustained remission after adjusting for covariates. a For the DAS28 (blue line), the graphs depict the means of the health assessment questionnaire (HAQ) considering all covariates, i.e., estimating for a female, seropositive patient at age 49.6 years, disease duration of 2.4 years, time to sustained REM of 26.8 weeks, a change of DAS28 from week 0 to week 24 in REM of 0.17, and a DAS28 of 2.07 and a HAQ of 0.28 at first REM visit, as well as a modified total Sharp score (mTSS) of 18.35; for the SDAI (red line) the means were estimated for a female, seropositive patient at age 49.6, with a disease duration of 1.5 years, a time to sustained REM of 31.7 weeks, a change of SDAI from week 0 to week 24 in REM of 0.54, and an SDAI of 1.87 and HAQ of 0.15 at the first REM visit, as well as a mTSS Sharp score of 15.55. Mean as estimated separately for early RA (disease duration ≤2 years; dotted line) and established RA (disease duration >2 years; full line) patients in (b) DAS28 REM and (c) SDAI REM showed a significant decrease of HAQ scores over time in sustained REM, but no differences between early and established RA patients. DAS28 disease activity score using 28-joint counts including CRP, RA rheumatoid arthritis, REM remission, SDAI simplified disease activity index