OBJECTIVES: To compare the work productivity measured by Work Productivity and Activity Impairment Questionnaire (WPAI) in Rheumatology arthritis (RA) at baseline and 6-months follow up, in adult Latin-American naïve RA patients treated with tofacitinib and biological DMARDs (bDMARDs).

METHODS: This was a non-interventional study (NIS) comparing tofacitinib to bDMARDs treatment in patients with RA after failure of conventional DMARDs; the study was performed in Colombia and Peru. Convenience sampling in the tofacitinib arm and randomized in the bDMARDs arm was conducted. The WPAI-RA questionnaire was administered at baseline and Month 6 (±1 month) follow-up. The results are expressed in Least Mean Difference (LMD), Standard Deviation (SD) and Standard Error (SE) as variability measures.

RESULTS:One hundred patients treated with tofacitinib and 70 patients with bDMARDs were recruited between April-2017 and February-2019. The mean age was 53.5 years (SD 13.8) and the mean disease duration was 6.3 (SD 7.0) years.

Of the total patients, 28.0% from tofacitinib group (n=28) and 40.0% from bDMARDs group (n=28) were working for pay at baseline. For the tofacitinib group, absenteeism was 31.5% (SE 38.8), presenteeism was 56.4% (SD 32.9) and the percent overall work impairment due to health problems was 62.8% (SD 34.8); for the bDMARDs group, 36.1% (SD 35.6), 59.2% (SD 30.7) and 65.1% (SD 32.6), respectively.

The changes from baseline at month-6 of patients working during the study for absenteeism, presenteeism and work impairment due to health problems were: in the tofacitinib group -18.3% (SE 7.7), -34.8% (SE 5.9) and -11.0% (SE 16.5) and in the bDMARDs group -19.4% (SE 8.0); -34.8% (SE 6.2) and -15.9% (SE 15.0), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: Most RA patients were not working for pay in this study. Considering those who reported as working, improvement in the changes of presenteeism, absenteeism and work impairment due to health problems was observed in both groups.