Background
Methods
Study population and study design
JIA patients
General population
Recruitment
Disease status
-
Patients diagnosed before 1978 were re-classified according to the ILAR-classification based on their medical recordings [N = 433 (11.7%)] [23] This included patients diagnosed with Spondylarthitis, Psoriatic Arthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis or Still’s disease (with an onset before the age of 16 years, disease duration of at least 6 weeks and no other cause of symptoms)
-
JCA-patients diagnosed between 1978 and 1996 according the classification criteria of the European League Against Rheumatism [N = 1290 (34.9%)] [24]
Questionnaire
-
Socio-demographics: sex; age; participants’ and parental education; employment status
Variable definition
Participants’ educational level
Parental education
Employment
Data management and statistical analyses
Eligible study population
-
aged under 20 years [32],
-
not graduate from school (pupils) yet
-
no clear assignment was possible to the group of pupils or already graduated persons (students, trainees, working population, homemakers, retired) due to contradictory information within the questionnaire. (e.g. participants indicated a highest school degree but mentioned in the questionnaire that they were currently attending further education and that they worked part-time)
-
missing information on educational degree
-
younger than 20 years or older than 64 years. As the national data on the employment status of the German general population [33] only considers the working population between 20 and 64;
-
data classify them to be a pupil, student, trainee, homemaker or retired subject as profession
-
no clear classification was possible to the group of pupils or already graduated persons (students, trainees, working population, homemakers, retired) due to contradictory information within the questionnaire. (e.g. participants indicated a school degree, but noted within the questionnaire that they were currently doing further education and that they worked part-time)
-
employment status was missing.
Data entry
Statistical analyses
Results
Descriptive data
SEPIA study population | German general populationa
| |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Total |
N = 2183 | nmissing
|
N = 11,799 | nmissing
|
Sex | ||||
Female | 60.8% (n = 1327) | 0 | 50.8% (n = 6065) | 0 |
Age (years) | ||||
Mean (± SDb) | 34.4 (± 10.8) | 0 | 46.9 (± 11.2) | 10 |
Median (Range) | 32.0 (20.0 – 73.0) | 47.9 (20.3 – 67.5) | ||
Current intake of anti-rheumatic drugs | 49.0% (n = 1068) | 0 | N.a.c
| |
Disability cardholder | 37.3% (n = 815) | 0 | N.a.c
| |
Disease durationd
| ||||
Mean (± SDb) Median (Range) | 22.8 (± 11.6) 20.0 (1.0 - 60.0) | 0 | N.a.c
|
Educational degree of the JIA-patients and the German general population
Primary School Degree | Secondary School Degree | College or University Degree | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Age groupsa [years] | N GGPb
| N Sepia | GGPb n (%) | SEPIA n (%) | Standardized SEPIA n (%) c
| GGPb n (%) | SEPIA n (%) | Standardized SEPIA n (%)c
| GGPb n (%) | SEPIA n (%) | Standardized SEPIA n (%)c
| |
Men | 20–29 | 624 | 306 | 99 (15.87) | 55 (17.97) | 112 (17.97) | 170 (27.24) | 95 (31.05) | 194 (31.05) | 355 (56.89) | 156 (50.98) | 318 (50.98) |
30–39 | 772 | 230 | 157 (20.34) | 50 (21.74) | 168 (21.74) | 209 (27.07) | 69 (30.00) | 232 (30.00) | 406 (52.59) | 111 (48.26) | 373 (48.26) | |
40–49 | 1542 | 231 | 348 (22.57) | 52 (22.51) | 347 (22.51) | 501 (32.49) | 69 (29.87) | 461 (29.87) | 693 (44.94) | 110 (47.62) | 734 (47.62) | |
50–59 | 2052 | 59 | 553 (26.95) | 14 (23.73) | 487 (23.73) | 555 (27.05) | 19 (32.20) | 661 (32.20) | 944 (46.00) | 26 (44.07) | 904 (44.07) | |
≥60 | 812 | 30 | 359 (44.21) | 13 (43.33) | 352 (43.33) | 177 (21.80) | 8 (26.67) | 217 (26.67) | 276 (33.99) | 9 (30.00) | 244 (30.00) | |
Women | 20–29 | 482 | 618 | 35 (7.26) | 61 (9.87) | 48 (9.87) | 136 (28.22) | 201 (32.52) | 157 (32.52) | 311 (64.52) | 356 (57.61) | 278 (57.61) |
30–39 | 820 | 344 | 118 (14.39) | 36 (10.47) | 86 (10.47) | 285 (34.76) | 110 (31.98) | 262 (31.98) | 417 (50.85) | 198 (57.56) | 472 (57.56) | |
40–49 | 1753 | 242 | 227 (12.95) | 37 (15.29) | 268 (15.29) | 786 (44.84) | 97 (40.08) | 703 (40.08) | 740 (42.21) | 108 (44.63) | 782 (44.63) | |
50–59 | 2182 | 97 | 538 (24.66) | 40 (41.24) | 900 (41.24) | 847 (38.82) | 28 (28.87) | 630 (28.87) | 797 (36.53) | 29 (29.90) | 652 (29.90) | |
≥60 | 740 | 26 | 290 (39.19) | 11 (42.31) | 313 (42.31) | 240 (32.43) | 8 (30.77) | 228 (30.77) | 210 (28.38) | 7 (26.92) | 199 (26.92) | |
Total | 11,789 | 2183 | 2724 (23.11) | 369 (16.90) | 3080 (26.13) | 3906 (33.13) | 704 (32.25) | 3742 (31.75) | 5149 (43.68) | 1110 (50.85) | 4956 (42.04) | |
Standardized Difference %d (95% CI)e
| 3.02 (1.91; 4.12) | −1.39 (−2.59; −0.19) | −1.63 (−2.91; −0.37) |
Sensitivity analyses
JIA-patients admitted to the GCPAR before 2001
JIA-patients admitted to the GCPAR after 2000
Standardized comparison of the parental education of the SEPIA study population and the German general population
Primary School Degree | Secondary School Degree | College or University Degree | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Age groupsa
[years] | N GGPb
| N Sepia | GGPb
n (%) | SEPIA n (%) | Standardized SEPIA n (%)c
| GGPb
n (%) | SEPIA n (%) | Standardized SEPIA n (%)c
| GGPb
n (%) | SEPIA n (%) | Standardized SEPIA n (%)c
| |
Men | 20–29 | 618 | 257 | 153 (24.76) | 52 (20.23) | 125 (20.23) | 179 (28.96) | 93 (36.19) | 224 (36.19) | 286 (46.28) | 112 (43.58) | 269 (43.58) |
30–39 | 767 | 192 | 303 (39.50) | 77 (40.10) | 308 (40.10) | 197 (25.68) | 58 (30.21) | 232 (30.21) | 267 (34.81) | 57 (29.69) | 228 (29.69) | |
40–49 | 1527 | 180 | 907 (59.40) | 113 (62.78) | 959 (62.78) | 240 (15.72) | 47 (26.11) | 399 (26.11) | 380 (24.89) | 20 (11.11) | 170 (11.11) | |
50–59 | 2053 | 50 | 1336 (65.08) | 33 (66.00) | 1355 (66.00) | 301 (14.66) | 11 (22.00) | 452 (22.00) | 416 (20.26) | 6 (12.00) | 246 (12.00) | |
> = 60 | 809 | 22 | 592 (73.18) | 16 (72.73) | 588 (72.73) | 98 (12.11) | 3 (13.64) | 110 (13.64) | 119 (14.71) | 3 (13.64) | 110 (13.64) | |
Women | 20–29 | 481 | 532 | 117 (24.32) | 105 (19.74) | 95 (19.74) | 158 (32.85) | 190 (35.71) | 172 (35.71) | 206 (42.83) | 237 (44.55) | 214 (44.55) |
30–39 | 818 | 277 | 331 (40.46) | 100 (36.10) | 295 (36.10) | 219 (26.77) | 68 (24.55) | 201 (24.55) | 268 (32.76) | 109 (39.35) | 322 (39.35) | |
40–49 | 1729 | 195 | 981 (56.74) | 109 (55.90) | 967 (55.90) | 333 (19.26) | 37 (18.97) | 328 (18.97) | 415 (24.00) | 49 (25.13) | 435 (25.13) | |
50–59 | 2179 | 79 | 1399 (64.20) | 52 (65.82) | 1434 (65.82) | 323 (14.82) | 12 (15.19) | 331 (15.19) | 457 (20.97) | 15 (18.99) | 414 (18.99) | |
> = 60 | 747 | 17 | 515 (68.94) | 11 (64.71) | 483 (64.71) | 96 (12.85) | 2 (11.76) | 88 (11.76) | 136 (18.21) | 4 (23.53) | 176 (23.53) | |
Total | 11,728 | 1801 | 6634 (56.57) | 668 (37.09) | 6609 (56.35) | 2144 (18.28) | 521 (28.93) | 2536 (21.62) | 2950 (25.15) | 612 (33.98) | 2584 (22.03) | |
Standardized Difference %d (95% CI)e
| −0.21 (−1.49; 1.06) | 3.34 (2.31; 4.37) | −3.12 (−4.21; −2.03) |
Unemployment | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Age groupsa
[years] | N GGPb
| N Sepia | GGPb n (%) | SEPIA n (%) | Standardized SEPIA n (%)c
| |
Men | 20–34 | 6,135,000 | 342 | 427,000 (6.96) | 13 (3.80) | 233,202 (3.80) |
35–49 | 8,431,000 | 355 | 381,000 (4.52) | 20 (5.63) | 474,986 (5.63) | |
50–64 | 9,904,000 | 74 | 3,680,000 (37.16) | 11 (14.86) | 1,472,216 (14.86) | |
Women | 20–34 | 5,335,000 | 616 | 312,000 (5.85) | 36 (5.84) | 311,786 (5.84) |
35–49 | 7,336,000 | 391 | 336,000 (4.58) | 69 (17.65) | 1,294,588 (17.65) | |
50–64 | 5,650,000 | 112 | 291,000 (5.13) | 34 (30.36) | 1,715,178 (30.36) | |
Total | 42,791,000 | 1890 | 5,427,000 (12.68) | 183 (9.68) | 5,501,956 (12.86) | |
Standardized Difference %d (95% CI)e
| 0.18 (0.16; 0.19) |