A novel method to monitor rheumatoid arthritis prevalence using hospital and medication databases.

Background: Most estimates of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) prevalence, including all official figures in Australia and many other countries, are based on self-report. Self-report has been shown to overestimate RA, but the 'gold standard' of reviewing individual medical records is costly, time-consuming and impractical for large-scale research and population monitoring. This study provides an algorithm to estimate RA cases using administrative data that can be adjusted for use in multiple contexts to provide the first approximate RA cohort in Australia that does not rely on self-report.

Quantifying Physical Resilience after Knee or Hip Surgery in Older Australian Women Based on Long-Term Physical Functioning Trajectories.

Introduction: To improve outcomes after knee or hip surgery, better insight is needed in long-term recovery patterns in the context of ageing-related decline. We examined long-term trajectories of physical functioning (PF) in older women with and without hip and knee surgery and described profiles of cases with higher and lower resilience after surgery.

Methods: This observational study used data from 10,434 women (73-79 years) who completed survey 2 of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health.

Associations between factors in childhood and young adulthood and childlessness among women in their 40s: A national prospective cohort study.

Background: While the risk factors for infertility are well-established, research on factors associated with voluntary childlessness is limited and mainly focused on adulthood factors. Thus, we examined the associations between factors in childhood and young adulthood and different types of childlessness.

Methods: The analysis included 4653 women from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health from 1996 to 2021.