Physician Preferences and Variations in Prescription of Biologic Drugs for Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Register-Based Study of 4,010 Patients in Sweden

摘要

Objective. The prescription of biologic drugs for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients has varied considerably across different regions. Previous studies have shown physician preferences to be an important determinant in the decision to select biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) rather than nonbiologic, synthetic DMARDs (sDMARDs) alone. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that physician preferences are an important determinant for prescribing bDMARDs for RA patients in Sweden.