Risk of rheumatoid arthritis in patients with hepatitis C virus infection receiving interferon-based therapy: a retrospective cohort study using the Taiwanese national claims database.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To illuminate the association between interferon-based therapy (IBT) and the risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in patients infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV).

Design, setting, participants and interventions

This retrospective cohort study used Taiwan's Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2005 that included 18 971 patients with HCV infection between 1 January 1997 and 31 December 2012. We identified 1966 patients with HCV infection who received IBT (treated cohort) and used 1:4 propensity score-matching to select 7864 counterpart controls who did not receive IBT (untreated cohort).

Outcome measures

All study participants were followed until the end of 2012 to calculate the incidence rate and risk of incident RA.

Results

During the study period,

SUBMITTER: Tung CH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6059328 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature