E x t e n d e d r e p o r t REFERENCES 1. Marmot MG, Rose G, Shipley M, Hamilton PJS. Employment grade and coronary heart disease in British civil servants. J Epidemiol Commun Health 1978;32:244–9. 2. Pincus T, Callahan LF, Burkhauser RV. Most chronic diseases are reported more frequently by individuals with fewer than 12 years of formal education in the age 18– 64 United States population. J Chronic Dis 1987;40:865–74. 3. Adler NE, Boyce WT, Chesney MA, Folkman S, Syme SL. Socioeconomic inequalities in health: no easy solution. JAMA 1993;269:3140–5. 4. Pappas G, Queen S, Hadden W, Fisher G. The increasing disparity in mortality between socioeconomic groups in the United States, 1960 and 1986. N Engl J Med 1993;329:103–9. 5. Pincus T, Keysor J, Sokka T, Krishnan E, Callahan LF. Patient questionnaires and formal education level as prospective predictors of mortality over 10 years in 97% of 1416 patients with rheumatoid arthritis from 15 United States private practices. J Rheumatol 2004;31:229–34. 6. Minkler M, Fuller-Thomson E, Guralnik JM. Gradient of disability across the socioeconomic spectrum in the United States. N Engl J Med 2006;355:695–703. 7. Kunst AE, Mackenbach JP. Size of mortality differences associated with educational level in nine industrialized countries. Am J Public Health 1994;84:932–7. 8. Kim D, Kawachi I, Hoorn SV, Ezzati M. Is inequality at the heart of it? Cross-country associations of income inequality with cardiovascular diseases and risk factors. Soc Sci Med 2008;66:1719–32. 9. Mackenbach JP, Stirbu I, Roskam AJ, Schaap MM, Menvielle G, Leinsalu M, et al. Socioeconomic inequalities in health in 22 European countries. N Engl J Med 2008;358:2468–81. 10. Sokka T, Kautiainen H, Toloza S, M¨akinen H, Verstappen SMM, Hetland ML, et al. QUEST–RA: quantitative clinical assessment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis seen in standard rheumatology care in 15 countries. Ann Rheum Dis 2007;66:1491–6. 11. Sokka T, Hetland ML, Makinen H, Kautiainen H, Horslev-Petersen K, Luukkainen RK, et al. Remission and rheumatoid arthritis: data on patients receiving usual care in twenty-four countries. Arthritis Rheum 2008;58:2642–51. 12. Prevoo MLL, van’t Hof MA, Kuper HH, van Leeuwen MA, van de Putte LBA, van Riel PLCM. Modified disease activity scores that include twenty-eight-joint counts: development and validation in a prospective longitudinal study of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheum 1995;38:44–8. 13. Pincus T, Brooks RH, Callahan LF. A proposed standard protocol to evaluate rheumatoid arthritis (SPERA) that includes measures of inflammatory activity, joint damage, and longterm outcomes. J Rheumatol 1999;26:473–80. 14. Fries JF, Spitz P, Kraines RG, Holman HR. Measurement of patient outcome in arthritis. Arthritis Rheum 1980;23:137–45. 15. Pincus T, Swearingen C, Wolfe F. Toward a multidimensional health assessment questionnaire (MDHAQ): assessment of advanced activities of daily living and psychological status in the patient friendly health assessment questionnaire format. Arthritis Rheum 1999;42:2220–30. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. http://www.imf.org/external/ns/cs.aspx?id=28 (accessed 12 December 2008). Micheli A, Coebergh JW, Mugno E, Massimiliani E, Sant M, Oberaigner W, et al. European health systems and cancer care. Ann Oncol 2003;14:v41–v60. WHO. Preventing chronic diseases. a vital investment: WHO global report. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2005. Abegunde DO, Mathers CD, Adam T, Ortegon M, Strong K. The burden and costs of chronic diseases in low-income and middle-income countries. Lancet 2007;370:1929–38. Pincus T, Callahan LF. Formal education as a marker for increased mortality and morbidity in rheumatoid arthritis. J Chronic Dis 1985;38:973–84. Greenberger NJ, Davies NE, Maynard EP, Wallerstein RO. Universal access to health care in America: a moral and medical imperative. Ann Intern Med 1990;112:637–8. Andrulis DP. Access to care is the centerpiece in the elimination of socioeconomic disparities in health. Ann Intern Med 1998;129:412–16. Pincus T, Esther R, DeWalt DA, Callahan LF. Social conditions and self-management are more powerful determinants of health than access to care. Ann Intern Med 1998;129:406–11. Engel GL. The need for a new medical model: a challenge for biomedicine. Science 1977;196:129–36. DeWalt DA, Pincus T. The legacies of Rudolf Virchow: cellular medicine in the 20th century and social medicine in the 21st century. Isr Med Assoc J 2003;5:395–7. Pincus T. Formal educational level – a marker for the importance of behavioral variables in the pathogenesis, morbidity, and mortality of most diseases? [editorial]. J Rheumatol 1988;15:1457–60. Adler NE, Epel ES, Castellazzo G, Ickovics JR. Relationship of subjective and objective social status with psychological and physiological functioning: preliminary data in healthy white women. Health Psychol 2000;19:586–92. Marmot MG, Shipley MJ, Hemingway H, Head J, Brunner EJ. Biological and behavioural explanations of social inequalities in coronary heart disease: the Whitehall II study. Diabetologia 2008;51:1980–8. Sokka T, Pincus T. Eligibility of patients in routine care for major clinical trials of anti- tumor necrosis factor alpha agents in rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheum 2003;48:313–18. Krishnan E, Fries JF. Reduction in long-term functional disability in rheumatoid arthritis from 1977 to 1998: a longitudinal study of 3035 patients. Am J Med 2003;115:371–6. Pincus T, Sokka T, Kautiainen H. Patients seen for standard rheumatoid arthritis care have significantly better articular, radiographic, laboratory, and functional status in 2000 than in 1985. Arthritis Rheum 2005;52:1009–19. Uhlig T, Heiberg T, Mowinckel P, Kvien TK. Rheumatoid arthritis is milder in the new millennium: health status in patients with rheumatoid arthritis 1994–2004. Ann Rheum Dis 2008;67:1710–15. Emery P. Treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. BMJ 2006;332:152–5. Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB) Your key source of unbiased, independent advice For over 45 years DTB has been an independent, indispensable part of evidence-based clinical practice. DTB offers healthcare professionals detailed assessment of, and practical advice on, individual medicines and other treatments, groups of treatment and the overall management of disease. DTB is now also available online at http://dtb.bmj.com: c browse or search all DTB content from the latest issue back to 1994 c email alerting, sophisticated searching, RSS feeds and full text links from cited references c interactive services such as My Folders for quick access to articles that you have viewed previously and My Searches to save and re-use useful searches c comment online on any DTB article To subscribe, or for further information, please visit http://dtb.bmj.com 1672 Ann Rheum Dis 2009;68:1666–1672. doi:10.1136/ard.2009.109983