Descriptive epidemiology of hip and knee replacement among rheumatoid arthritis patients in England and Wales: variation by age, sex, geography and socioeconomic status
Hawley SJ., Edwards CJ., Arden NK., Delmestri A., Cooper C., Judge A., Prieto-Alhambra D.
Many outcomes of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have been well characterised for patients within the UK and have allowed comprehensive estimation of the disease burden attributable to RA. Such estimates are important for patients and for planning healthcare provision. However, long-term outcomes such as the incidence of orthopaedic surgery remains less well studied. We aimed to provide descriptive data on rates of total hip (THR) and total knee replacement (TKR) within a large national cohort of incident RA patients, and describe the potential influence of age, sex, geographic region and socio-economic status.