Table 3 Predictors for employment among patients with RA

Predictor

Studies

Participants

Chi²

p

I² (%)

OR

95% CI

Age (< = 50/ > 50 years)

5

2623

74.4

 < 0.001

95

3.56

2.97, 4.26

Gender (female/male)

28

16248

74.1

 < 0.001

64

0.58

0.53, 0.62

Educational level (college/below college)

14

5117

20.2

0.09

35

2.25

1.96, 2.59

Race (Caucasian/not Caucasian)

8

3197

12.0

0.10

42

1.13

0.90, 1.42

Job type (not manual/manual)

8

2366

13.8

0.06

49

2.38

1.89, 3.00

Comorbidities (not present/present)

4

1932

4.2

0.25

28

1.74

1.41, 2.14

MTX ever (no/yes)

5

3191

5.44

0.25

26

0.87

0.73, 1.03

Biological treatment ever (no/yes)

6

11960

132

 < 0.001

96

0.89

0.81, 0.98

Prednisolone ever (no/yes)

2

633

1.05

0.3

5

0.41

0.25, 0.68

Predictor

Studies

Participants

Mean difference

95% CI

Age (low/high age)

17

4361

-6.59

-7.03, -6.15

Disease duration (short/long)

8

1998

-1.54

-2.05, -1.03

HAQ score (low/high)

5

1652

-0.48

-0.55, -0.40

Joint pain, VAS score (low/high)

4

906

-0.92

-1.25, -0.59

SF 36 (low/high)

2

309

7.57

5.03, 10.1

DAS 28 (low/high)

2

568

-0.27

-0.48, -0.06