Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on morbidity and mortality in patients with inflammatory joint diseases and in the general population: a nationwide Swedish cohort study.

To estimate absolute and relative risks for all-cause mortality and for severe COVID-19 in inflammatory joint diseases (IJDs) and with antirheumatic therapies. Through Swedish nationwide multiregister linkages, we selected all adult patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA, n=53 455 in March 2020), other IJDs (here: spondyloarthropathies, psoriatic arthritis and juvenile idiopathic arthritis, n=57 112), their antirheumatic drug use, and individually matched population referents. We compared annual all-cause mortality March-September 2015 through 2020 within and across cohorts, and assessed absolute and relative risks for hospitalisation, admission to intensive care and death due to COVID-19 March-September 2020, using Cox regression. During March-September 2020, the absolute all-cause mortality in RA and in other IJDs was higher than 2015-2019, but relative risks versus the general population (around 2 and 1.5) remained similar during 2020 compared with 2015-2019. Among patients with IJD, the risks of hospitalisation (0.5% vs 0.3% in their population referents), admission to intensive care (0.04% vs 0.03%) and death (0.10% vs 0.07%) due to COVID-19 were low. Antirheumatic drugs were not associated with increased risk of serious COVID-19 outcomes, although for certain drugs, precision was limited. Risks of severe COVID-19-related outcomes were increased among patients with IJDs, but risk increases were also seen for non-COVID-19 morbidity. Overall absolute and excess risks are low and the level of risk increases are largely proportionate to those in the general population, and explained by comorbidities. With possible exceptions, antirheumatic drugs do not have a major impact on these risks.

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© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.

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Competing interests: All authors have completed the Unified Competing Interest form (available on request from the corresponding author) and declare: JA: PI for agreements between Karolinska Institutet and Abbvie, BMS, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Roche, Samsung Bioepis, and Sanofi for safety monitoring of anti-rheumatic therapies (ARTIS). KC: consultancy fees and speaker’s honoraria from Eli Lilly, Abbvie and Pfizer. NF is employed by the Medical Products Agency (MPA), which is a governmental body. The views in this article may not represent the views of the MPA. AK: former employee of Sanofi. CT: Research grant from Bristol-Myers Squibb, consultancy fees and speaker’s honorarium from Roche, and speaker’s honoraria from Abbvie and Pfizer.