In their discussion, the authors write, despite seeing a clinically relevant improvement in disability over time, “Our results confirm the persistence of significant residual disability; 53% of patients exhibited HAQ DI ≥1 throughout the entire observation period.” Many of the study participants entered the health care system with their disease well underway, commonly undiagnosed, and inconsistently or inadequately treated for years. Because the study observation period was short, “we are therefore uncertain how sustainable this improvement in disability might be over a longer time frame.”
For Hispanic patients with RA, “improvement over time, collectively or in isolation, and regardless of their original severity, may yield clinically measurable improvements in functional disability and reaffirms all of them as actionable items in a patient-centered treat-to-target approach,” conclude the authors.
Karpouzas GA, Draper T, Moran R, et al. Trends in functional disability and determinants of clinically meaningful change over time in Hispanic patients with rheumatoid arthritis in the U.S. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2017 Feb;69(2):294–298. doi: 10.1002/acr.22924.
