Prevalence, comorbidities, and disease-related complications of rheumatoid arthritis in Colombia: a national cross-sectional study based on administrative claims data

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BackgroundTo date, there has been limited exploration, particularly on a national scale, of the prevalence patterns of comorbidities and complications associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in Colombia. We aimed to analyze the prevalence patterns of comorbidities and disease-related complications of RA patients enrolled in Colombia’s contributory healthcare regime.MethodsWe performed a nationwide observational descriptive cross-sectional study using administrative claims data. We used a set of sensitive and specific electronic algorithms (i.e., a set of rules) applied to linked data based on ICD-10 codes and unique medication use codes. We compared all those algorithms with several sources, including governmental agencies and scientific literature, to identify all the known adults treated for RA.ResultsA total of 123,080 RA cases for 2018 were identified, corresponding to a point prevalence of 0.86 (95% CI 0.86–0.87) per 100. Compared to a non-RA reference population, hypertension (68.2 vs. 20.0%), osteoarthritis (43.6 vs. 6.1%), and osteoporosis (18.6 vs. 1.1%) provided larger standardized mean differences. Lupus (30.04; 95%CI 29.3–30.8), multiple sclerosis (7.18; 95%CI 6.6–7.8), and osteoporosis (5.57; 95%CI 5.5–5.6) provided higher age- and sex-adjusted prevalence ratios. Disease-related complications were found in 62.2% of cases.ConclusionsWe describe the first comprehensive assessment of the prevalence patterns of disease-related complications and comorbidities that define the RA burden of disease within a multimorbidity profile. Also, our study provides a narrower and more reliable point prevalence estimate for RA in Colombia.