The risk of hospitalized infection following initiation of biologic agents versus methotrexate in the treatment of juvenile idiopathic arthritis

Table 3 Relative hazards of infection for tumor necrosis factor inhibitors versus methotrexate

Exposure	Comparator	Unadjusted relative hazard (95 % CI)	Adjusted^a relative hazard (95 % CI)
TNFi monotherapy	MTX	1.12 (0.70–1.78)	1.19 (0.72–1.94)
TNFi + MTX combination	MTX	1.21 (0.69–2.10)	1.23 (0.69–2.17)
Hospitalized infection during baseline	No infection during baseline		3.28 (1.44–7.48)
Nonprimary hospitalized or outpatient infection during baseline	No infection during baseline		1.72 (1.12–2.63)
High-dose oral GC (≥10 mg/day)	No oral GC use during baseline		2.03 (1.21–3.39)
Low-dose oral GC (<10 mg/day)	No oral GC use during baseline		0.86 (0.50–1.46)

TNFi Tumor necrosis factor inhibitor, MTX Methotrexate, GC Glucocorticoid
^aMultivariable model included the following variables: new TNFi use, age, sex, asthma, baseline oral GC dose, infection during baseline period

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