Effects of anifrolumab on renal disease in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Respondents diagnosed after a year were more likely to report insurance not covering costs, long wait times for appointments with primary care physicians (PCP), and lack of nearby doctors treating lupus. Conclusion Multiple factors associated with lupus diagnosis delays, including delayed access to specialists, onerous health care costs, and health insurance obstacles. An ongoing shortage of rheumatologists may further magnify the delay in diagnosis and explain the apparent long wait times for specialists, misdiagnosis, and increasing costs. Further practitioner education, rheumatology provider recruitment, and studies examining reasons for lupus diagnosis delays may help us better understand and reduce inequities in reaching a prompt lupus diagnosis. It is important to recognize the limitations of the study; the convenience sample study design lacks the rigor of random sampling, some questions may have introduced recall bias, and socioeconomic status and disease burden at time of diagnosis weren’t addressed in this survey. Acknowledgments The Lupus Foundation of America received funding from Exagen Inc. to support study data collection.