Work loss in patients with rheumatoid arthritis treated with abatacept, rituximab, tocilizumab or TNF inhibitors: a nationwide direct drug-to-drug comparison

TL;DR

This study compares work loss in rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with different drugs and finds no significant differences in work loss over time.

Contribution

The study provides a nationwide comparison of work loss trajectories among rheumatoid arthritis patients on various treatments.

Findings

Work loss increased until treatment initiation and then stabilized.

No significant differences in work loss were found between TNFi, rituximab, abatacept, or tocilizumab.

Similar work loss trends were observed three years after treatment initiation.

Abstract

To compare work loss after starting tumour necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi), rituximab, abatacept or tocilizumab in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

We used data from the Swedish Rheumatology Quality Register to identify patients aged 19-62 years who were treated with TNFi (n=15 093), rituximab (n=2123), abatacept (n=1877) or tocilizumab (n=1720) between 2007 and 2020. Data on work loss (0–365 days per year) from sick leave and disability pension were retrieved from linkage to the Social Insurance Agency. Patients in the different treatment arms were balanced regarding baseline covariates using inverse probability weighting (IPTW).

Work loss increased for patients with RA until drug treatment initiation, reached a peak in the month after treatment initiation and then levelled off. Following IPTW, at 3 years before starting the treatment, there were no statistically significant differences in the mean annual adjusted work loss days between rituximab, abatacept or tocilizumab vs TNFi (mean difference vs TNFi: rituximab 1.1 days, 95% CI −4.5 to 6.7; abatacept 3.3, 95% CI −2.6 to 9.2; tocilizumab 1.2, 95% CI −4.9 to 7.3). At 3 years after starting the treatment (latest January 2021), there were also no statistically significant differences in the mean annual adjusted work loss days (mean difference: rituximab −4.8 days, 95% CI −11.3 to 1.7; abatacept 5.3, 95% CI −1.8 to 12.3; tocilizumab −0.6, 95% CI −7.7 to 6.5).

Taking channelling into account, patients with RA treated with TNFi, rituximab, abatacept or tocilizumab had similar trajectories of work loss from sick leave and disability pension until treatment initiation, and similar trend breaks and plateau 3 years thereafter.

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