Management of Elderly-onset Rheumatoid Arthritis

Abstract

  In addition to population-growth in the elderly, development of new therapeutic agents for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) contributes to an increase in the number of elderly patients with RA. It is also reported that the age of RA onset is going higher. Elderly-onset RA (EORA) is defined as RA developing after the age of 60 years. In RA patients, significant damage can be detected radiographically within the first 2 years after the initial presentation of symptoms; therefore, appropriate treatment should be administered at the earliest. Meanwhile, caution should be exercised in prescribing disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) to elderly patients because the associated risk of adverse effects and toxicity is elevated in the elderly. However, excessive caution may prevent elderly patients from being implemented the ideal therapy. Compared to young patients with RA, patients with EORA are less frequently treated with biological agents or multiple DMARDs treatment and more frequently treated with prednisone. Some patients with EORA do not receive optimal treatment during the early stage of RA, when the disease is highly active and joint destruction rapidly progresses. EORA should be treated with appropriate DMARDs instead of corticosteroids in order to maintain the risk of infection minimal and the patients' physical function maximal.