Rheumatoid arthritis databases in Finland

T. Sokka

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA, and Consultant Rheumatologist, Jyväskylä Central Hospital, Jyväskylä, Finland.

ABSTRACT
A tradition exists in Finland of longitudinal studies to analyze the long-term outcomes of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), including early studies in the 1970s and 1980s of work disability and premature mortality in patients with RA and follow-up studies of early RA cohorts. This article reviews long-term observations from the Finnish RA Combination Therapy Trial (FIN-RACo), a 2-year multicenter randomized controlled trial which has been continued as a longitudinal observational study after the initial two years. We also describe the Central Finland RA Database, which captures most patients who have been diagnosed with RA since 1980 in a district of a quarter of a million people.

Key words
Database, rheumatology, rheumatoid arthritis, longitudinal observational studies

Please address correspondence and reprint requests to: Tuulikki Sokka, MD, PhD, Vanderbilt University / Rheumatology, 203 Oxford House, Nashville, TN 37232-4500, USA.
E-mail: tuulikki.sokka@vanderbilt.edu

Clin Exp Rheumatol 2005; 23 (suppl. 39): S201-S204.
© CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL RHEUMATOLOGY 2005.