THU0123 FEMALES UNDERGO MORE TREATMENT CHANGES COMPARED TO MALES: ANALYSIS OF GENDER DIFFERENCES IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS PATIENTS

Background Gender differences may contribute to treatment tailoring in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Observational data shows a trend toward worse disease activity and worse response to treatment in females. Only few data are available specifically focused on differences in drug use according to gender. Objectives To evaluate gender differences in treatment approaches in RA patients treated with bDMARDs (biological DMARDs) Methods We included RA patients aged ≥18 years, with disease duration ≥1 years, with a stable bDMARD treatment (≥12 months) in a monocentric cohort in the North-East of Italy. Social, demographic, and clinical features in addition to treatments were considered. To assess variables independently associated with gender, all variables achieving a p Results Among 721 RA patients, 514 patients were eligible for the analysis and 407 were females. Compared with males, females had a lower BMI, a higher DAS28, a higher number of conventional synthetic DMARDs (csDMARDs) used before the start of bDMARDs, a higher number of bDMARDs with different mechanism of action (MoA), a larger use of prednisone and a lower rate of combination with MTX (Table 1). After adjustment for confounding factors, females had an increased probability of taking ≥ 2 DMARDs before bDMARDs (OR 2.21, 95% CI 1.25-3.93, p=0.007) and a lower BMI (per 5-unit increase, OR 0.70, 95% CI 0.56-0.87, p=0.001) compared to males (Figure 1). Conclusion In a cohort of Italian RA patients, females were treated with a higher number of csDMARDs before starting a bDMARD compared to males and a trend toward the use of more bDMARDs with different MoA. Further insight is needed regarding possible differences in the accessibility to bDMARD treatment and reasons for unsatisfactory treatment control in females. Disclosure of Interests None declared