Table 2: Conceptual Agreement and Self Reported Overall Application of EULAR Recommendations for the Management of RA

Item Mean SD
Overarching principles 7.23 3.04
Item-1 (starting DMARDs early) 8.62 2.60
Item-2 (remission-monitoring) 9.49 1.44
Item-3 (Methotrexate) 9.05 2.05
Item-4 (DMARDs other than MTX) 7.99 2.21
Item-5 (Monotherapy rather than combination) 6.28 3.09
Item-6 (Adding GCs) 8.86 2.10
Item-7 (Biologics when poor prognosis) 8.55 2.02
Item-8 (responding insufficiently, start TNF inhibitors) 8.67 1.98
Item-9 (Failure in first TNF inhibitor, start another TNF inhibitor or other biologics) 8.22 2.25
Item-10 (Refractory severe RA or biologics contraindicated other synthetic DMARDs ) 7.87 2.24
Item-11 (Intensive medication strategies) 8.80 1.87
Item-12 (Persistent remission tapering of biologics) 8.15 2.29
Item-13 (Sustained long-term remission, cautious titration of synthetic DMARD) 8.73 1.86
Item-14 (Poor prognostic factors combination of MTX with a biologic) 7.68 2.76
Item-15 (progression of structural damage, comorbidities and safety concerns) 9.41 1.42
Self-declared application of overall recommendations, % 72.42 20.53