The lag time from symptoms onset of rheumatoid arthritis to initiation of Methotrexate: data from the Moroccan register of biotherapies

Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine the time between the onset of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) symptoms and the introduction of methotrexate, as well as the associated factors.Methods: A multicenter cross-sectional study that included data from the Moroccan register of biologic patients with rheumatoid arthritis.Sociodemographic, economic patient data and disease data were collected.A logistic regression was performed to determine the factors that are associated with the change in the delay between the onset of symptoms and the initiation of cDMARD.Results: A total of 225 RA patients were included.The mean age was 51 ± 11 years, with a female predominance of 88% (n=197).The diagnosis lag time was 12 months (12-48).Seventy-three percent of the cases were housewives.Seventy-nine percent of patients received Methotrexate as the first CDMARDS.Salazopyrine was the second prescribed CDMARDS with 7%.Hydroxychloroquine was the third prescribed cDMARDs which 2.2%.The median lag time from symptoms onset to initiation of Methotrexate was 24 months (0.16-71).The factors, associated with the change in the delay between the onset of symptoms and the introduction of methotrexate in univariate analysis, were delay in diagnosis and corticosteroids Taking (p<0.05),only the delay of diagnosis in multivariate analysis persists p=0.0001.Conclusions: Our study suggests that there is a significant delay between diagnosis and the introduction of methotrexate as a first line cDMARDs.In multivariate analysis only the time to diagnosis was associated with the time to start methotrexate.