Baseline demographic and clinical characteristics* of adult patients identified with newly diagnosed SLE between January 2005 and December 2014 from US commercial claims data, for all patients and by SLE disease severity
| Variable | All patients (N=2227) | SLE disease severity† | P value‡ | ||
| Mild (n=586) | Moderate (n=1135) | Severe (n=506) | |||
| Age, mean (SD), years | 50.2 (13.0) | 50.0 (12.2) | 49.7 (13.1) | 51.8 (13.3) | 0.0088 |
| Age category, n (%) | |||||
| 18–44 years | 709 (31.8) | 187 (31.9) | 373 (32.9) | 149 (29.4) | 0.0298 |
| 45–64 years | 1252 (56.2) | 336 (57.3) | 640 (56.4) | 276 (54.5) | |
| ≥65 years | 266 (11.9) | 63 (10.8) | 122 (10.7) | 81 (16.0) | |
| Female, n (%) | 2017 (90.6) | 544 (92.8) | 1030 (90.7) | 443 (87.5) | 0.0113 |
| Race/ethnicity, n (%) | |||||
| Non-Hispanic white | 1212 (54.4) | 318 (54.3) | 621 (54.7) | 273 (54.0) | 0.2913 |
| Non-Hispanic black | 298 (13.4) | 87 (14.8) | 136 (12.0) | 75 (14.8) | |
| Hispanic | 105 (4.7) | 25 (4.3) | 61 (5.4) | 19 (3.8) | |
| Other | 124 (5.6) | 40 (6.8) | 58 (5.1) | 26 (5.1) | |
| Unknown | 488 (21.9) | 116 (19.8) | 259 (22.8) | 113 (22.3) | |
| Region, n (%) | |||||
| Northeast | 415 (18.6) | 92 (15.7) | 211 (18.6) | 112 (22.1) | 0.0517 |
| North central | 289 (13.0) | 75 (12.8) | 139 (12.2) | 75 (14.8) | |
| South | 1303 (58.5) | 354 (60.4) | 681 (60.0) | 268 (53.0) | |
| West | 210 (9.4) | 64 (10.9) | 97 (8.5) | 49 (9.7) | |
| Unknown | 10 (0.4) | 1 (0.2) | 7 (0.6) | 2 (0.4) | |
| Health plan type, n (%) | |||||
| HMO | 219 (9.8) | 60 (10.2) | 114 (10.0) | 45 (8.9) | 0.0873 |
| Indemnity | 169 (7.6) | 43 (7.3) | 74 (6.5) | 52 (10.3) | |
| POS | 244 (11.0) | 73 (12.5) | 119 (10.5) | 52 (10.3) | |
| PPO | 1367 (61.4) | 355 (60.6) | 719 (63.3) | 293 (57.9) | |
| Other | 164 (7.4) | 40 (6.8) | 82 (7.2) | 42 (8.3) | |
| Unknown | 64 (2.9) | 15 (2.6) | 27 (2.4) | 22 (4.3) | |
| Payer type, n (%) | |||||
| Commercial | 1953 (87.7) | 521 (88.9) | 1008 (88.8) | 424 (83.8) | 0.0098 |
| Medicare supplemental | 274 (12.3) | 65 (11.1) | 127 (11.2) | 82 (16.2) | |
| Medication use, n (%) | |||||
| Opioids | 1199 (53.8) | 248 (42.3) | 649 (57.2) | 302 (59.7) | <0.0001 |
| Antidepressants | 784 (35.2) | 173 (29.5) | 420 (37.0) | 191 (37.7) | 0.0034 |
| Muscle relaxants | 523 (23.5) | 111 (18.9) | 294 (25.9) | 118 (23.3) | 0.0054 |
| Sedatives | 508 (22.8) | 106 (18.1) | 254 (22.4) | 148 (29.2) | <0.0001 |
| Gabapentin | 189 (8.5) | 23 (3.9) | 116 (10.2) | 50 (9.9) | <0.0001 |
| Antimigraine | 133 (6.0) | 23 (3.9) | 86 (7.6) | 24 (4.7) | 0.0042 |
| CCI, mean (SD) | 1.2 (1.5) | 0.8 (1.1) | 1.1 (1.4) | 1.8 (1.8) | <0.0001 |
| CCI category, n (%) | |||||
| 0 | 895 (40.2) | 301 (51.4) | 461 (40.6) | 133 (26.3) | <0.0001 |
| 1 | 664 (29.8) | 177 (30.2) | 345 (30.4) | 142 (28.1) | |
| 2 | 341 (15.3) | 72 (12.3) | 172 (15.2) | 97 (19.2) | |
| ≥3 | 327 (14.7) | 36 (6.1) | 157 (13.8) | 134 (26.5) | |
| Individual comorbidities from the CCI§, n (%) | |||||
| Diabetes mellitus | 298 (13.4) | 50 (8.5) | 147 (13.0) | 101 (20.0) | <0.0001 |
| Cerebrovascular accident | 140 (6.3) | 15 (2.6) | 44 (3.9) | 81 (16.0) | <0.0001 |
| Liver disease | 142 (6.4) | 23 (3.9) | 69 (6.1) | 50 (9.9) | 0.0003 |
| Any malignancy | 135 (6.1) | 28 (4.8) | 68 (6.0) | 39 (7.7) | 0.1280 |
| Peripheral vascular disease | 106 (4.8) | 13 (2.2) | 53 (4.7) | 40 (7.9) | <0.0001 |
| Congestive heart failure | 85 (3.8) | 12 (2.0) | 38 (3.3) | 35 (6.9) | <0.0001 |
| Myocardial infarction | 22 (1.0) | 0 (0.0) | 11 (1.0) | 11 (2.2) | 0.0014 |
*During the 1-year period before diagnosis.
†Disease severity was assessed during the 1-year period after diagnosis, and patients were classified to the most severe level during that period.
‡P values are for differences between the three disease severity groups.
§Comorbidity reported if present in ≥2% in any group.
CCI, Charlson Comorbidity Index; HMO, health maintenance organisation; POS, point of service; PPO, preferred provider organisation.