Relationship of education level to treatment received for rheumatoid arthritis

Objective. To determine whether treatment received for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is systematically different among individuals with different levels of formal education. Methods. Using 4,455 patient-years of observational data from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) RA panel, we estimated the relationship between patients'education level and treatment received for RA. We define RA treatment broadly in terms of both the use of specific medications and use of health services. Independent variables include spouse's education level, as well as demographic, clinical, and socioeconomic characteristics, which are potential cofounders of this relationship due to associations with education level or RA treatment