Predicting unfavorable long-term outcome in juvenile idiopathic arthritis: results from the Nordic cohort study

The initial prospective longitudinal multicenter Nordic JIA cohort consisted of consecutive children with incident JIA from 12 participating centers in defined geographical areas of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. All children in these areas with newly diagnosed JIA and disease onset in the study periods between 1 January 1997 and 30 June 2000 were included. The study was designed to be as close to population-based as possible, as previously reported [11].

In the current study, 440 children met the criteria of having a baseline study visit and a final study visit 8 years after disease onset. Out of these, 17 patients with systemic JIA were excluded, because systemic JIA is considered to have autoinflammatory rather than autoimmune disease mechanisms, and the clinical characteristics of predominantly fever, rash and serositis differs from other JIA-categories [12].

The baseline study visit was planned 6 months after disease onset. At this visit, disease activity variables, complete joint count, physician’s global assessment of disease activity (physician’s GA) on a 10-cm visual analogue scale (VAS), patient’s/parent’s global assessment (GA), medication and blood tests were registered [13]. Disease onset was defined as the time of presentation of symptoms of active arthritis, and the JIA categories were determined according to the International League of Associations for Rheumatology (ILAR) criteria [14].

At follow up, we evaluated 4 outcomes: (1) the main outcome was non-achievement of remission off medication, chosen as the best available validated measure of an adverse disease state over time. This included active disease, inactive disease of less than 12 months of duration, and clinical remission on medication (according to the preliminary Wallace criteria) [15, 16]. For the remainder of the paper, not in remission or non-achievement of remission refers to non-achievement of remission off medication unless otherwise specified; (2) and (3) functional disability was evaluated using the Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ), and the Child Health Questionnaire Parent form (CHQ-PF50), aiming to achieve a broad evaluation of functional disability using both the JIA-specific CHAQ and the generic CHQ-PF50 instruments. CHAQ addresses functional ability in different activities of everyday life [17]. The CHAQ was completed by children of age >9 years, and otherwise by their parents, and the corresponding Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) by participants > 18 years of age. From this point on in the text, CHAQ will refer to both the CHAQ and HAQ scores. The CHQ-PF50 consists of 50 items and 12 domains assessing health-related quality of life, yielding a physical summary score (PhS) and a psychological summary score (PsS) [17]. PhS ranges from 0 to 100, with a higher score indicating better functional ability; and (4) joint damage was assessed using the Juvenile Arthritis Damage Index of articular damage (JADI-A) ranging from 0 to a maximum of 72, where 36 joints, or joint groups, are scored 0 for no damage, 1 for partial damage, or 2 for severe damage [18]. All 4 outcomes were dichotomized; remission was dichotomized into clinical remission (those achieving remission without medication), and non-achievement of remission off medication (those not achieving remission or achieving remission on medication), CHAQ and JADI-A into score = 0, indicating no functional disability or no joint damage, and positive score >0, PhS into good functional ability, defined as score ≥40, and functional disability <40. This latter cutoff level is based on a reference score of 40 being one standard deviation below the mean score of healthy children in the USA [19].

Antinuclear antibodies (ANA) and rheumatoid factor (RF) were tested at least twice with a minimum of 3 months apart. ANA was analyzed by immunofluorescence on Hep-2 cells. Tests were interpreted according to cutoff values of the local immunological laboratories. HLA-B27 was analyzed using standardized methods [20]. C-reactive protein (CRP) was measured with immunoassays, with values <10 mg/L considered normal.

For each outcome, multivariable logistic regression models were constructed using a combination of predefined core variables, and additional variables selected using a forward stepwise selection method. Since the predictive ability of the models is assessed using cross-validation, the conventional limitations related to the screening of a large number of covariates in multivariable models are evaded [21]. Cross-validation controlled for overfitting of the data (internal validation), and the degree of overfitting is reflected in the performance in validation sets.

Clinical characteristics included in the Wallace provisional criteria for remission were a priori included in the prediction models; the cumulative active joint count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), CRP, physician’s GA, and morning stiffness [22]. Uveitis activity applies only to a minority of the cohort and was therefore not included. The additional baseline variables were included in a stepwise fashion if they contributed to the multivariable model with p < 0.05 when included. Symmetric joint involvement was not considered a candidate predictor as it correlates strongly with the specific joint involvement (Fig. 1). To ensure model simplicity the total number of variables was not allowed to exceed 10. Once the set of variables were selected, the model coefficients β _i for each predictor variable x _i were estimated using multivariable logistic regression, and the probability of unfavorable outcome was given as:

For each of the four outcomes, cross-validation of the method was performed by partitioning the cohort randomly in training sets consisting of three quarters of the patients (N = 317) and validation sets consisting of one quarter of the patients (N = 106). In each realization of the random partitioning we constructed prediction models using the algorithm described above, using only the training set to select variables and estimate coefficients. For each of the patients in the corresponding validation set the multivariable logistic model provides a probability of the unfavorable outcome. By comparing the predicted probability of unfavorable outcome with the actual outcome at the final study visit, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was computed, and the area under the curve (AUC) was estimated. The median AUC with interquartile range (IQR) was estimated from 100 realizations of the random partitioning of the cohort. For each step in the cross-validation we omitted any patients where the outcome or the required predictor variables were not available.

Finally, in our cohort we tested the prediction model for severe disease course developed by Guzman et al. [10]. We tested Guzman’s model using the 4 outcome measures described above, i.e. not the outcomes for which their model was constructed. The analysis was performed using the software packages STATA version 14, and Wolfram Mathematica version 11.1.1.0.

Approvals from medical research ethical committees and data protection authorities were granted according to the regulations of each participating country. Written informed consent was obtained from parents of children aged < 16 years, and from the children themselves if aged ≥ 16 years of age.

Characteristics of the 440 patients in the cohort have previously been published [11]. The study cohort constituted 423 children, after 17 patients with systemic JIA were excluded. The median time between disease onset and the baseline study visit was 7 (IQR 6–8) months, and between disease onset and the final study visit it was 98 (IQR 95–102) months. The median time from disease onset to diagnosis was 1.6 (IQR 0.5–3.3) months. A total of 280 patients (66.2%) were female, and the median age of disease onset in the cohort was 5.5 (IQR 2.5–9.7) years (Additional file 1: Table S1).

At the baseline study visit, 227/423 patients (53.7%) had oligoarthritis, 94/423 (22.2%) had rheumatoid factor (RF)-negative polyarthritis, and 4/423 (1.0%) had RF-positive polyarthritis (Additional file 1: Table S1). The median cumulative number of active joints within the first visit was 3 (IQR 1–6), and 381/423 patients (90.1%) had one or more affected lower limb joints at the baseline visit. Antinuclear antibodies (ANA) were present in 115/410 patients (28.1%), and HLA-B27 in 85/393 patients (21.6%) [23], presented in Additional file 1: Table S1. None of the children had started biologic agents before the baseline study visit, and early medications are shown in Additional file 2: Table S2. A total of 410/423 (96.9% of the total cohort) had baseline assessments and data on remission 8 years after disease onset. The corresponding numbers were 340/423 (80.4%) for CHAQ, 199/423 (47.0%) for PhS and 216/423 (51.1%) for JADI-A.

The clinical predictor variables were analyzed with respect to correlation. There was significantly positive, moderate to strong correlation between several variables, especially between cumulative number of active joints, the joint-specific variables, and the polyarthritis RF-negative category. Physician’s GA and the patient-reported outcomes also correlated positively with each other. The correlation structure between the predictor variables is illustrated in Fig. 1.

Remission status at the final study visit was available for 410 patients. There were 166 (40.5%) children in remission without medication, while 38 (9.3%) were in remission on medication, and 206 (50.2%) were not in remission: 244/410 children (59.5%) did not achieve remission off medication. The baseline predictors of not achieving remission off medication were analyzed by univariate logistic regression and are presented in Table 1.

The following predictor variables were included in the multivariable prediction model for non-achievement of remission: Cumulative active joint count, ESR, CRP, morning stiffness, physician’s GA, ANA, HLA-B27, and ankle joint arthritis. The first five variables were chosen a priori, and ANA, HLA-B27, and ankle joint arthritis were the variables included through the stepwise selection method (Table 2). The model has an AUC of 0.84 in the total cohort. Cross-validation yielded a median AUC = 0.78 (IQR 0.72–0.82) in the validation sets (Table 3). The corresponding ROC curves are shown in Figs. 2 and 3.

We also developed a prediction model without the blood samples (ESR, CRP, ANA, and HLA-B27). This model yielded an AUC = 0.76 (IQR 0.72–0.80) for non-achievement of remission in the validation sets (Additional file 3: Figure S1).

The CHAQ score at the final study visit was available in 340 children, and 111 (32.7%) had a CHAQ score >0. Three of the four patients with RF-positive polyarthritis reported functional disability. For univariate logistic regression results see Additional file 4: Table S3.

The prediction model for CHAQ score >0 uses cumulative active joint count, ESR, CRP, morning stiffness, physician’s GA, finger joint arthritis, and pain VAS as variables (Table 2). The AUC of this model was 0.79 in the total cohort, and cross validation gave a median AUC of 0.73 (IQR 0.67–0.76) in the validation sets (Table 3). The ROC curve for the total cohort, and validation sets are shown in Figs. 2 and 3, respectively. The AUC for the model without blood samples was 0.72 (IQR 0.67–0.76) in the validation sets (Additional file 3: Figure S1).

Of the 199 patients with a physical summary score, 40 (20.1%) had a score <40. Results of the univariate analysis with PhS <40 as the outcome variable are shown in Additional file 5: Table S4. Variables included in the prediction model for PhS were cumulative active joint count, ESR, CRP, morning stiffness, Physician’s GA, and pain VAS (Table 2). The AUC was 0.90 in the total cohort, and cross-validation gave a median AUC = 0.74 (IQR 0.65–0.80) in the validation sets (Table 3, Figs. 2 and 3). The AUC for the model without blood samples was 0.73 (0.66–0.79) in the validation sets (Additional file 3: Figure S1).

The JADI-A was collected for 216 patients at the final study visit, and 29 patients (13.4%) had joint damage registered 8 years after disease onset. The baseline predictors of joint damage are presented in Additional file 6: Table S5. In the prediction model, older age at disease onset and finger joint arthritis were included in addition to the five previously included variables (Table 2). The AUC was 0.84 in the cohort, and the median AUC was 0.73 (IQR 0.63–0.76) in the validation sets. The results are summarized in Table 3 and Figs. 2 and 3. Without blood tests the median AUC in the validation sets was 0.73 (IQR 0.63–0.80) (Additional file 3: Figure S1).

The prediction model developed by Guzman et al. [10] was tested in our cohort by testing the ability of their model to predict the four outcomes described above. The model yielded an AUC = 0.69 for prediction of not achieving remission. For CHAQ >0, PhS <40, and JADI-A >0 the AUCs were 0.68, 0.69, and 0.71, respectively (Additional file 7: Figure S2).