Early diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis: associations between patients’ perceptions of initial symptoms and the timing of seeking help from the general practitioner
Authors' conclusion
People with RA symptoms may delay seeing their GP due to low expectations of treatment effectiveness and significant symptom variability.
Study context
- Population
- Recently diagnosed individuals with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) identified from the Danish Rheumatology Database, DANBIO404 answered
- Participants
- 1,163 participants
- Exposure
- Highest vs lowest scores within each Illness Perception Questionnaire - Revised (IPQ-R) subscale
- Outcome
- Time taken to seek help from a GP (patient delay) by perceptions of initial symptoms (IPQ-R)
Methodological detailsquestionnaire survey, adjusted multivariable linear regression, DANBIO registry
- Questionnaire survey
- Adjusted multivariable linear regression
- DANBIO registry
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Median time to first GP contact (patient delay), highest vs lowest IPQ-R subscale scores
Adjusted median ratio (MR)
0.54
95% CI 0.29–0.99
High expectations of treatment control vs Low expectations of treatment control · 54% lower median time to first general practitioner (GP) contact
Adjusted MR
1.61
95% CI 0.93–2.78
High perceptions of symptom variability at disease onset vs Low perceptions of symptom variability at disease onset · higher median time to first GP contact
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Patient delay by age
Original publication
Early diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis: associations between patients’ perceptions of initial symptoms and the timing of seeking help from the general practitioner. Scand J Rheumatol. Published 27 February 2025. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →