Photo Credit: Drazen Zigic

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with higher healthcare expenditures and suboptimal QOL in US adults, according to a study published in ACR Open Rheumatology. Yinan Huang, PhD, from the University of Mississippi in Oxford, and colleagues estimated the economic and humanistic burden of RA among US adults using self-reported data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (2018-2020). The researchers found significantly higher total annual healthcare expenditures in the RA group versus the non-RA group (mean, $3,382.971). Healthcare expenditures included inpatient care, outpatient care, ED use, office visits, prescription medications, home health, and others. The RA group also had lower Short Form 12 Health Survey physical component summary scores (mean, 4.78) and lower mental component summary scores (mean, −0.84). Compared with the non-RA group, the RA group also had increased odds of requesting assistance with activities of daily living (aOR, 2.02) and instrumental activities of daily living (aOR, 2.11).