Patient outcome | Definition |
---|---|
Persistence | Continuous use of index therapy without a treatment gap of ≥ 30 days over a 12- or 24-month follow-up period. For patients who initiated combination therapy, this could have been a treatment gap with either therapy. |
Discontinuation | A gap in therapy of ≥ 30 days without another prescription for the index therapy within that period. |
Switch | Initiation of a therapy—biologic or csDMARD—other than the index therapy after discontinuation of the index therapy. While patients could have more than one switch event, the outcome was defined as the proportion of patients with any switching event during the follow-up period |
Restart | Discontinuing therapy for ≥ 30 days, and restarting the same therapy after the discontinuation gap |
Reasons | |
Side effect | Includes serious, minor, or fear of side effects |
Social | Includes cost, preference, frequency of administration |
Lack of effect | Includes inadequate response and failure to maintain initial response |
Doing well | Includes remissions and similar events |
Othera | Inclusive of all other reasons that cannot be categorized elsewhere |