Confounders contributing to explain the association between sex and disease impact in patients with recent-onset psoriatic arthritis

Commentary: Sex-based medicine in psoriatic arthritis: Lessons learned from machine learning-based prediction models

“…In line with the criterion of a difference of >10% between the crude and the adjusted OR, the potential confounders in the association between sex and PsAID were HAQ, pain, patient global assessment of disease, level of physical activity, and joint pattern at diagnosis ( Table 1 ). After adjustment for these variables, no statistically significant association was observed between female sex and PsAID ≥4 ( 10 ).…”

“…There exists methodological heterogeneity and paucity of data concerning sex-specific differences, in terms of the specific population studied, study design, and the PsA diagnostic criteria utilized (1). Although many studies point to more severe and impactful disease in PsA women, when modern AI-based predictive technologies are used in rigorously controlled prospective cohorts, these differences are no longer as apparent (7,8,10). Therefore, as Braggazzi et al stated in their review, "harmonizing and reconciling these discrepancies would be of crucial importance in achieving the ambitious goals of personalized/individualized medicine and further standardized 1 The SHAP (SHapply Additive exPlanations) method is a technique for explaining the output of artificial intelligence models.…”

“…There exists methodological heterogeneity and paucity of data concerning sex-specific differences, in terms of the specific population studied, study design, and the PsA diagnostic criteria utilized ( 1 ). Although many studies point to more severe and impactful disease in PsA women, when modern AI-based predictive technologies are used in rigorously controlled prospective cohorts, these differences are no longer as apparent ( 7 , 8 , 10 ). Therefore, as Braggazzi et al.…”

Predictors of flares in recent-onset psoriatic arthritis. Results of a multivariable model based on machine learning

“…This work is part of the REAPSER study [7,8,9,10]. The design of REAPSER has been described in detail elsewhere [7].…”

The association between sex and disease impact cannot be confounded by clinical risk factors

“…We read with interest the article by R. Queiro et al entitled 'Confounders contributing to explain the association between sex and disease impact in patients with recent-onset psoriatic arthritis' (1). In this article the authors studied 158 patients with recent-onset psoriatic arthritis to evaluate the association that was previously found between sex and disease impact (measured by the Psoriatic Arthritis Impact of Disease questionnaire, PsAID): physical functioning was found to be lower in women with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) than in men.…”