Trends in Gout and Rheumatoid Arthritis Hospitalizations in the United States, 1993-2011

Gout and rheumatoid arthritis are the 2 most common inflammatory arthritides.As hospitalizations for these conditions incur substantial resource use, hospitalization trends and associated costs provide key benchmarks of disease burden.However, relevant long-term data are scarce.We evaluated US hospitalization trends of gout and rheumatoid arthritis from 1993-2011.We investigated these 2 arthritides simultaneously, as we hypothesized opposing trends (due to improvement in rheumatoid arthritis care and a worsening in gout epidemiology 1 and suboptimal care 2 ) and as each condition would serve as an internal comparison for the other. Rheumatoid arthritis GoutError bars indicate 95% CIs.