Sex-specific differences and how to handle them in early psoriatic arthritis.
Passia E., Vis M., Coates LC., Soni A., Tchetverikov I., Gerards AH., Kok MR., Vos PAJM., Korswagen L., Fodili F., Goekoop-Ruiterman YPM., van der Kaap J., van Oosterhout M., Luime JJ.
OBJECTIVES: The prevalence of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is the same in men and women; however, the latter experience a higher burden of disease and are affected more frequently by polyarthritis. Here, we performed an early PsA cohort analysis to assess sex-related differences in demographics, disease characteristics, and evolution over 1 year including applied treatment strategies. METHODS: Our study is embedded in the Dutch south-west Early Psoriatic Arthritis cohoRt. We described patient characteristics and treatment decisions. For the comparison across sexes and baseline and 1 year follow-up, appropriate tests depending on the distribution were used. RESULTS: Two hundred seventy-three men and 294 women with no significant differences in age and ethnicity were included. Women reported significantly longer duration of symptoms before diagnosis and significantly higher tender joint count, a higher disease activity, higher levels of pain, and lower functional capacity. Although minimal disease activity (MDA) rates increased over time for both sexes, MDA remained significantly more prevalent among men at 1 year (58.1% vs 35.7%, p