%0 Journal Article %A Pamela F. Weiss %A Rui Xiao %A Timothy G. Brandon %A Ilaria Pagnini %A Tracey B. Wright %A Timothy Beukelman %A Esi Morgan-DeWitt %A Chris Feudtner %T Comparative Effectiveness of Tumor Necrosis Factor Agents and Disease-modifying Antirheumatic Therapy in Children with Enthesitis-related Arthritis: The First Year after Diagnosis %D 2018 %R 10.3899/jrheum.170251 %J The Journal of Rheumatology %P 107-114 %V 45 %N 1 %X Objective. To characterize the effect of anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) therapy compared to conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARD) in children with enthesitis-related arthritis (ERA) over the first year after diagnosis.Methods. We conducted a multicenter retrospective comparative effectiveness study of children diagnosed with ERA. We estimated the effect of anti-TNF therapy on clinical variables (active joint count, tender entheses count) and patient-reported pain and global assessment of disease activity over the first year after diagnosis using state-of-the-art comparative effectiveness analytic methods.Results. During the study period, 217 patients newly diagnosed with ERA had a total of 965 clinic visits the first year after disease diagnosis. Children [median age 11.6 yrs, interquartile range 10–14] were treated with anti-TNF monotherapy (n = 33, 15.2%), csDMARD monotherapy (n = 73, 33.6%), or both (n = 52, 23.9%) in the first year after disease diagnosis. There was a statistically significant improvement in the primary outcome, active joint count, over time in children who received an anti-TNF drug versus those who did not (p = 0.03). Additionally, use of anti-TNF therapy versus no anti-TNF therapy was associated with less patient-reported pain (p < 0.01) and improved disease activity over time as assessed by the clinical Juvenile Arthritis Disease Activity Score (p < 0.01). The magnitude of estimated effect on clinical outcomes was uniformly greater, with the exception of tender entheses count, in children treated with an anti-TNF drug versus a csDMARD.Conclusion. During the first year after diagnosis, anti-TNF exposure was associated with benefits for several clinically meaningful outcomes in children with enthesitis-related arthritis. %U https://www.jrheum.org/content/jrheum/45/1/107.full.pdf