25
Percent
20
Total
15
Women Men
2009
Figure 74 Sweden
2010
2011
Rheumatoid arthritis – percentage of patients age 18 and older treated with biologic drugs. Source: Swedish Rheumatology Quality Register
With the goal of improving public health, the indicator’s first task is to survey the scope of biologic therapy in the various Swedish counties. The indicator reflects the percentage of patients who are taking biologic drugs for chronic rheumatoid arthritis. The sources of data are the Swedish Rheumatology Quality Register, as well as the Prescribed Drug register of the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare. Given that biologic drugs are not fully reported to other national registers, the completeness of the Rheumatology Quality Register in this regard cannot be calculated with exactitude. Nevertheless, the Rheumatology Quality Register was compared with the Prescribed Drug Register with respect to two of the prescription biologic drugs entered in the latter register for 2006–2009. Based on the Prescribed Drug Register, the Rheumatology Quality Register had a completeness of registration of approximately 90 per cent. Age, gender and educational variables were the same regardless of whether or not patients had been entered in the Rheumatology Quality Register. Thus, the missing data are unlikely to differ much from those included in the Rheumatology Quality Register, which also contains biologic drugs administered as intravenous drip rather than on a prescription basis. The estimate of the number of patients receiving biologic drugs was based on a cross-check between the Rheumatology Quality Register on the one hand and the Prescribed Drug Register and National Patient Register of the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare on the other hand. All patients who had seen a doctor for the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis at least twice, including once in 2007–2010, were classified as having the condition at the end of 2010. The idea was to identify patients with chronic rheumatoid arthritis that currently required treatment. Data reflecting biologic therapy for these patients were obtained from the Rheumatology Quality Register and Prescribed Drug Register. The goal of this indicator is to estimate the percentage of patients with rheumatoid arthritis who were being
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