The prevalence and types of discordance between physician perception and objective data from standardized measures of rheumatoid arthritis disease activity in real-world clinical practice in the US

Background Heterogeneity in assessments of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease remission, based on physician judgment and patient self-reports versus standardized measures, have previously been reported. This study explored the prevalence and types of discordance between physician perception versus objective data of RA disease activity in real-world clinical practice in the US. Methods Data were from the Adelphi RA Disease Specific Programme (DSP; January to March 2014), a cross-sectional survey of US rheumatologists and their patients. RA remission based on physician judgment versus Disease Activity Score in 28 joints (3)-erythrocyte sedimentation rate (DAS28(3)-ESR) and Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI) scores were compared using descriptive analyses; patient and physician factors associated with discordance were identified using bivariate and multivariate analyses. Results Of 101 rheumatologists participating (completing patient-record forms for 843 patients), 56.4% based assessment of remission on clinical judgment alone. Of 531 patients eligible for the discordance analysis, 49.7% were in remission based on rheumatologists’ evaluation, and 30.7% were eligible based on DAS28(3)-ESR. Compared with DAS28(3)-ESR criteria, 25.8% of patients’ disease remission was negatively discordant (overestimated remission) based on clinical perception. These patients were mostly administered biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs and were without a treat-to-target strategy followed by their rheumatologist (P