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

Table 4 Relative hazards of infection for anakinra versus methotrexate and anakinra versus methotrexate with systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis

Exposure	Comparator	Unadjusted relative hazard (95 % CI)	Adjusted^a relative hazard (95 % CI)
Anakinra	MTX	5.69 (3.30–9.81)	3.53 (1.83–6.82)
Hospitalized infection during baseline	No infection during baseline		4.81 (1.94–11.9)
Nonprimary hospitalized or outpatient infection during baseline	No infection during baseline		1.76 (0.99–3.16)
High-dose oral GC (≥10 mg/day)	No oral GC use during baseline		2.79 (1.35–5.78)
Low-dose oral GC (<10 mg/day)	No oral GC use during baseline		1.06 (0.54–2.08)
Anakinra	MTX with SJIA	3.07 (0.93–10.2)	2.69 (0.82–8.82)
Hospitalized infection during baseline	No infection during baseline		3.10 (0.74–12.9)
Nonprimary hospitalized or outpatient infection during baseline	No infection during baseline		1.76 (0.66–4.72)
High-dose oral GC (≥10 mg/day)	No oral GC use during baseline		2.05 (0.57–7.30)
Low-dose oral GC (<10 mg/day)	No oral GC use during baseline		1.59 (0.41–6.09)

Abbreviations: MTX Methotrexate, SJIA Systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis, mg Milligrams of prednisone equivalents, GC Glucocorticoid
^aMultivariable model included the following variables: new anakinra use, age, sex, asthma, baseline oral GC dose, infection during baseline period, cyclosporine use (time-varying).

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