- The European Research on Incapacitating Disease and Social Support (EURIDISS) cohort was established in Oslo 1991.1 This was initially a multicenter European project investigating social support in rheumatoid arthritis (RA ) and patients were identified by searching medical records at the Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Oslo and Martina Hansen’s Hospital in the neighbouring county of Akershus. Patients fulfilling the ACR criteria (1987) for RA, with disease duration < 4 years, aged 20-79 years were included. Exclusion criteria were patients confined to wheel chair or bed, and expected to be lost to follow up. Two hundred and sixty-eight of the 326 eligible patients agreed to participate in the study. Thirty patients were subsequently excluded due to not fulfilling the ACR criteria (n=21), moving out of Oslo (n=6) and immigrants having difficulties with Norwegian communication (n=3). Thus, 238 patients were included at baseline and were followed up after 1, 2, 5 and 10 years.
- The Oslo Rheumatoid Arthritis (ORAR) cohort was established I 1994 and included patients fulfilling the 1987 ACR criteria for the RA diagnosis. The ORAR cohort was validated for its completeness for patients aged 29-79 years through a postal survey of 10 000 inhabitants in.2 The patients in ORAR have been asked to participate in regular follow-up data collections. From the register, 90 patients were identified who had participated in the 1997 data collection, and who had reported a disease onset between 1993 and 1997. Of these patients, 8 had diseased and the survivors were asked to participate in the 2007 data collection.
All patients signed an informed consent and the studies were approved by the South Eastern health Authority Ethical board
Oslo contribution to the ATACC-RA cohort
A total of 205 patients with RA were included in the ATACC-RA cohort. Of these 147 in 2002/2003 and 58 examined in 2007/2008 . One hundred and sixty two patients did not have diagnosed CVD prior to inclusion in the ATACC-RA cohort. The 205 patients were followed up by telephone contact in 2013 and asked if they had experienced a cardiovascular event(s). Patients reported events were all verified by hospital journal reports.
References
- Smestad LM, Vaglum P, Kvien TK, Moum T. The relationship between self-reported pain and sociodemographic variables, anxiety, and depressive symptoms in rheumatoid arthritis. J Rheumatol 1995; 22:514-520
- Kvien T, Glennas A, Knudsrod OG, Smestad LM, Mowinckel P, Forre O. The prevalence and severity of rheumatoid arthritis in Oslo. Results from a county register and a population survey. Scand J Rheumatol 197; 26:412-418
