Table 4

Incidence density and HRs of hearing loss associated with medication in patients with RA

Medicine use	N	Event (n)	Person-years	Incidence density†	HR (95% CI)
Medicine use	N	Event (n)	Person-years	Incidence density†	Crude‡	Adjusted‡
NSAIDs
No	169	16	532	30.1	Ref	Ref
Yes	18 098	413	138 553	2.98	0.11 (0.07 to 0.18)***	0.12 (0.07 to 0.20)***
Prednisolone
No	1673	60	11 529	5.20	Ref	Ref
Yes	16 594	369	127 556	2.89	0.56 (0.43 to 0.74)***	0.53 (0.40 to 0.70)***
DMARDs
Hydroxychloroquine
No	12 200	309	91 284	3.39	Ref	Ref
Yes	6067	120	47 801	2.51	0.75 (0.60 to 0.92)**	0.77 (0.62 to 0.95)*
Sulfasalazine
No	5141	148	36 176	4.09	Ref	Ref
Yes	13 126	281	102 909	2.73	0.68 (0.56 to 0.83)***	0.74 (0.61 to 0.91)**
Methotrexate
No	9261	268	67 188	3.99	Ref	Ref
Yes	9006	161	71 897	2.24	0.57 (0.47 to 0.69)***	0.65 (0.53 to 0.79)***
Leflunomide
No	15 393	405	116 118	3.49	Ref	Ref
Yes	2874	24	22 967	1.04	0.30 (0.20 to 0.45)***	0.33 (0.22 to 0.50)***
TNF
Etanercept
No	16 259	408	122 506	3.33	Ref	Ref
Yes	2008	21	16 579	1.27	0.39 (0.25 to 0.60)***	0.44 (0.28 to 0.68)***
Adalimumab
No	17 317	424	131 303	3.23	Ref	Ref
Yes	950	5	7783	0.64	0.20 (0.08 to 0.48)***	0.23 (0.10 to 0.55)**

*P<0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001.
†Per 1000 person-years.
‡Model adjusted for sex, age, DM, hyperlipidaemia, hypertension, hyperthyroidism, IHD, stroke, CKD, hypothyroidism and autoimmune diseases.
CKD, chronic kidney disease; DM, diabetes mellitus; DMARD, disease-modifying antirheumatic drug; IHD, ischaemic heart disease; NSAID, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug; RA, rheumatoid arthritis; TNF, tumour necrosis factor.