Lee et al. examined the use of a smartphone application to monitor longitudinal electronic patient-reported outcomes on satisfaction and disease activity in patients with RA.
In their new study, Fike et al. found Latino patients with rheumatic diseases have a higher rate of COVID-19 than the general Latino population. Obesity is a risk factor for COVID-19, and COVID-19 is a risk factor for rheumatic disease flare.
In a study of patients with systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases (ARDs) and matched comparators with COVID-19 but without systemic ARDs, D’Silva et al. found COVID-19 patients with systemic ARDs may be at a higher risk of hospitalization, ICU admission and more than matched comparators.
Women remain underrepresented in research and may receive less funding than men, according to a recent study that describes differences in sex representation among U.S. National Institutes of Health study sections.
Musculoskeletal disorders pose a large burden globally, but that burden is often underappreciated. Safiri et al. set out to provide a global overview of this burden, reporting the levels and trends of prevalence, deaths and disability-adjusted life years due to musculoskeletal disorders according to age, sex and sociodemographic factors.
COVID-19-related deaths are significantly higher in communities with higher proportions of Black, Latinx, Asian American or other racial/ethnic minorities.
In this study, Fatima et al. analyzed how well the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) disability index predicts future all-cause mortality in patients with early RA (i.e., with a symptom duration of less than one year). A total of 1,724 patients with early RA were included. The researchers found that a higher HAQ score and Disease Activity Score at one year were significantly associated with all-cause mortality.
The 2020 Basic Science Year in Review covered autoantibody origin and persistence, insights into the major histocompatibility complex and factors in rheumatoid arthritis progression and relapse.