Janus kinase inhibitor use and incident dry eye disease in rheumatoid arthritis: a real-world cohort study.
Janus kinase inhibitor use linked to fewer new dry eye disease diagnoses in rheumatoid arthritis
Janus kinase inhibitor use and incident dry eye disease in rheumatoid arthritis: a real-world cohort study.
To examine the association between systemic Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor use and the incidence of newly diagnosed dry eye disease (DED) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
This multi-institutional retrospective cohort study used de-identified electronic health records from the United States Collaborative Network.
arthritis patients taking JAK inhibitor drugs were less likely to develop new dry eye
A total of 25,149 JAK inhibitor users and 150,250 non-users with RA were identified.
After matching, each cohort contained 23,343 patients with balanced baseline characteristics.
In the secondary active-comparator analysis, 6,637 JAK inhibitor users were matched to 6,637 rituximab-treated patients, and JAK inhibitor use remained associated with a lower incidence of newly diagnosed DED (HR, 0.613; 95% CI, 0.476-0.791).
Individual-agent analyses showed directionally consistent associations for tofacitinib and upadacitinib.
In this large real-world cohort study, JAK inhibitor use was associated with a lower incidence of newly diagnosed DED among patients with RA, with similar findings in a rituximab active-comparator analysis.
However, the observational design, residual confounding, and coding-based outcome definition preclude causal inference.
Prospective studies incorporating standardized ocular surface assessments and direct RA disease activity measures are needed to clarify the clinical relationship between systemic JAK inhibition and DED.