Association of biological antirheumatic therapy with risk for type 2 diabetes: a retrospective cohort study in incident rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To explore possible associations of treatment with biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs), including T-cell-based and interleukin-6 inhibition (IL-6i)-based therapies, and the risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). STUDY DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Five treatment groups were selected from a United States Electronic Medical Records database of 283 756 patients with RA (mean follow-up, 5 years): never received bDMARD (No bDMARD, n=125 337), tumour necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi, n=34 873), IL-6i (n=1884), T-cell inhibitors (n=5935) and IL-6i+T cell inhibitor abatacept (n=1213). Probability and risk for T2DM we..