Key clinical point: The risk for COVID-19 hospitalization reduced markedly after vaccination in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and matched individuals from the general population; however, patients with RA remained at a higher risk for hospitalization even after complete vaccination.
Major finding: The absolute risk for hospitalization was 0.20% vs 0.08% among unvaccinated patients with RA vs matched patients at 60 days of follow-up and remained below 0.05% in both fully vaccinated groups after 180 days of follow-up. However, patients with RA remained at a higher risk for COVID-19 hospitalization vs matched patients, even after complete vaccination (adjusted hazard ratio 1.94; 95% CI 1.03-3.66).
Study details: This was an observational study of 28,447 unvaccinated patients with RA receiving conventional synthetic or biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs who were matched with 568,940 individuals from the general population with no history of inflammatory rheumatic disease; eventually, all individuals received one or two doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
Disclosures: This study was funded by Aalborg University Hospital . Some authors reported receiving grants and being on speaker’s bureau for various sources.
Source: Cordtz R et al. COVID-19 infection and hospitalization risk according to vaccination status and DMARD treatment in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2022 (Apr 13). Doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keac241