NEWS:Rheumatoid Arthritis Referral Later in Women

August 10, 2005

Rheumatoid Arthritis Referral Later in Women

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Aug 08 - Women with early rheumatoid

arthritis (RA) are referred to a rheumatologist later than their male

counterparts, new research shows. In both sexes, the time from disease

onset to consultation with a physician was quite long -- 16 weeks.

Early referral for RA has been established as an effective

joint-protecting measure, yet few studies have looked at or broken down

the time from disease onset to rheumatologic encounter.

In the present study, reported in The ls of the Rheumatic Diseases

for August, Dr. O. Palm and Dr. E. Purinszky, from Ostfold Hospital in

Sarpsborg, Norway, analyzed data from all patients who were referred to

their center with early RA over a 12-month period.

A total of 59 patients met standard criteria for RA, of whom 44 had

data suitable for analysis. This group included 17 men and 27 women.

The lag time between RA onset and rheumatologic encounter for the

disease was divided into three parts: RA onset to initial physician

encounter (patient's delay), initial physician encounter to

rheumatologist referral (physician's delay), and referral to

rheumatologic encounter (hospital's delay).

Both the patient's delay and the hospital's delay did not differ

significantly between men and women. By contrast, the median

physician's delay for women was 10 weeks, significantly longer than the

3 weeks observed for men (p = 0.039).

When the data for male and female patients were combined, the median

physician's delay was 8 weeks, twice as long as the median hospital's

delay. As noted, the total lag time in the combined analysis was 16

weeks.

" Women, who most often have RA, were referred later than men,

indicating that referring physicians should pay special attention to

the diagnosis of early RA in women in order to achieve a shorter

'physician's delay', " the authors comment. " This study also highlights

the need to improve the organization of healthcare. The delay cannot be

explained by a lack of rheumatologists. "

Ann Rheum Dis 2005;64:1227-1228.

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