OBJECTIVE: Women with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) may have reduced tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) effectiveness compared to men. We examined sex differences in treatment response and retention rates during 24 months of follow-up among patients with PsA initiating their first TNFi. METHODS: Data from patients with PsA across 13 European Spondyloarthritis Research Collaboration Network registries starting their first TNFi were pooled. Logistic regression was used to analyze the association between sex and treatment response using low disease activity (LDA) according to the Disease Activity Score in 28 joints using the C-reactive protein level (DAS28-CRP) (<3.2) at six months as the primary outcome. Analyses were adjusted for age, country, conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug treatment, and TNFi start year. Retention rates were explored using the Kaplan-Meier estimator. RESULTS: We analyzed the treatment response of 7,679 patients with PsA (50% women) with available data on LDA at six months. At baseline, women and men had similar characteristics, including mean DAS28-CRP (women vs men, 4.4 [SD 1.2] vs 4.2 [SD 1.2]), though patient-reported outcome measures were worse in women. At six months, 64% of women and 78% of men had LDA (relative risk [RR] 0.82; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.80-0.84). This difference was similar after adjustment (RR 0.83; 95% CI 0.81-0.85). TNFi retention rates were evaluated in 17,842 patients with PsA. Women had significantly lower retention rates than men at all time points (women 79%, 64%, and 50% vs men 88%, 77%, and 64% at 6, 12, and 24 months, respectively). CONCLUSION: Despite comparable disease characteristics at baseline, women with PsA have reduced treatment response and retention rates to their first TNFi, highlighting the need to consider sex differences in PsA research and management.

Aarhus University Hospital Aarhus Denmark

Amsterdam University Medical Centers Amsterdam The Netherlands

Charles University Prague Czech Republic

Copenhagen Center for Arthritis Research Center for Rheumatology and Spine Diseases Centre for Head and Orthopedics Rigshospitalet Glostrup and Department of Clinical Medicine University of Copenhagen Copenhagen Denmark

Copenhagen Center for Arthritis Research Center for Rheumatology and Spine Diseases Centre for Head and Orthopedics Rigshospitalet Glostrup Denmark

DANBIO and Copenhagen Center for Arthritis Research Center for Rheumatology and Spine Diseases Centre for Head and Orthopedics Rigshospitalet Glostrup University of Copenhagen Copenhagen Denmark

Diakonhjemmet Hospital Oslo and Sørlandet Hospital Kristiansand Norway

Diakonhjemmet Hospital Oslo Norway

Dokuz Eylul University School of Medicine Izmir Turkey

Geneva University Hospital Geneva Switzerland

Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki Helsinki Finland

Hospital de Santa Maria Lisbon Portugal

Hospital Garcia de Orta Almada Portugal

Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón Madrid Spain

Inselspital University Hospital Bern University of Bern Bern Switzerland

Institute of Rheumatology and Charles University Prague Czech Republic

Landspitali University Hospital and University of Iceland Reykjavik Iceland

Radboud University Medical Center Nijmegen The Netherlands

Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg Gothenburg Sweden

Skåne University Hospital and Lund University Lund Sweden

Universidad de La Laguna La Laguna Spain

University Medical Centre Ljubljana and University of Ljubljana Ljubljana Slovenia

University Medical Centre Ljubljana Ljubljana Slovenia

University of Bari Bari Italy

University of Medicine and Pharmacy Bucharest Romania

University of Medicine Padova Italy

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