Charting the possible impact of national guidelines on the management of rheumatoid arthritis.
Charting the possible impact of national guidelines on the management of rheumatoid arthritis.
Scand J Rheumatol. 2008 May-Jun;37(3):188-93
Authors: Carli C, Bridges JF, Ask J, Lindblad S
Objective: To identify temporal trends in the prescription of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods: Using data from the Swedish RA register (n = 2584), we analysed the proportion of RA patients prescribed DMARDs at their first consultation between 1997 and 2001. Statistical process control (SPC) was used to chart and analyse major changes in prescription behaviour, while more traditional time series analysis methods (i.e. regression) were used to corroborate the nature of any trend. Results: The SPC method identified an upward shift in the prescription of DMARDs in July 1998 and a change in the process by October 1998. Time series analysis confirmed an increasing trend in DMARD prescription over the period as a whole and the trend was statistically significant (p
PMID: 18465453 [PubMed - in process]
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