I N Ackerman reports grants from Victorian Government, outside of the submitted work. C A T Antonio reports personal fees from Johnson & Johnson (Philippines), outside of the submitted work. E Beghi reports grants from Italian Ministry of Health and SOBI and personal fees from Arvelle Therapeutics, outside of the submitted work. Y Béjot reports personal fees from AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Pfizer, and Medtronic, Merck Sharpe & Dohme, and Amgen; grants and personal fees from Boehringer-Ingelheim; personal fees and non-financial support from Servier; and non-financial support from Biogen, outside of the submitted work. P S Briant reports personal fees from WHO, outside of the submitted work. H Christensen reports personal fees from Bristol Myers Squibb, Bayer, and Boehringer Ingelheim, outside of the submitted work. L Degenhardt reports grants from Indivior and Seqirus, outside of the submitted work. S J Dunachie reports grants from the Fleming Fund at the UK Department of Health and Social Care, during the conduct of the study. L M Haile reports personal fees from WHO, outside of the submitted work. S M S Islam reports grants from National Heart Foundation of Australia and Deakin University, during the conduct of the study. S L James reports grants from Sanofi Pasteur and employment from Genentech, outside of the submitted work. P Jeemon reports and Clinical and Public Health intermediate fellowship (grant number IA/CPHI/14/1/501497) from the Wellcome Trust—Department of Biotechnology, India Alliance (2015–2020). V Jha reports grants from Baxter Healthcare, GlaxoSmithKline, Zydus Cadilla, NephroPlus, and Biocon, outside of the submitted work. J J Jozwiak reports personal fees from Amgen, ALAB Laboratoria, Teva, Synexus, and Boehringer Ingelheim, outside of the submitted work. S V Katikireddi reports grants from NRS Senior Clinical Fellowship, Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office, and the UK Medical Research Council, during the conduct of the study. S Lewington reports grants from the UK Medical Research Council and the CDC Foundation (with support from Amgen), outside of the submitted work. K J Looker reports grants from WHO and GlaxoSmithKline, outside of the submitted work. S Lorkowski reports personal fees from Akcea Therapeutics, Amedes, Amgen, Berlin-Chemie, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma, Daiichi Sankyo, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi-Aventis, Synlab, Unilever, and Upfield and non-financial support from Preventicus, outside of the submitted work. R A Lyons reports grants from Health Data Research UK, outside of the submitted work. J Massano reports personal fees from Abbvie, Bial, Merck Sharp & Dohme, and Zambon and other support from Boston Scientific, GE Healthcare, Medtronic, and Roche, outside of the submitted work. W Mendoza is a Program Analyst in Population and Development at the UN Population Fund Country Office in Peru, an institution that does not necessarily endorse this study. M Moradi-Lakeh reports personal fees from Novartis, outside of the submitted work. J F Mosser reports grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, during the conduct of the study. S Nomura reports grants from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. S B Patten reports funding from the Cuthbertson & Fischer Chair in Pediatric Mental Health, during the conduct of the study. T Pilgrim reports grants and personal fees from Biotronik and Boston Scientific, grants from Edwards Lifesciences, and personal fees from HighLife SAS for his work as a member of clinical event committee for a study sponsored by HighLife SAS, outside of the submitted work. M J Postma reports grants and personal fees from Merck Sharp & Dohme, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novavax, Bristol Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca, Sanofi, IQVIA, and Seqirus; personal fees from Quintiles, Novartis, and Pharmerit; grants from Bayer, BioMerieux, WHO, EU, FIND, Antilope, DIKTI, LPDP, and Budi; and other support from Ingress Health, PAG, and Asc Academics, outside of the submitted work. E Pupillo reports grants from AIFA, outside of the submitted work. A E Schutte reports personal fees from Omron, Servier, Novartis, Takeda, and Abbott, outside of the submitted work. M G Shrime reports grants from Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation and Mercy Ships, outside of the submitted work. J A Singh reports personal fees from Crealta/Horizon, Medisys, Fidia, UBM, Trio Health, Medscape, WebMD, Clinical Care Options, Clearview Healthcare Partners, Putnam Associates, Spherix, Practice Point Communications, National Institutes of Health, and the American College of Rheumatology; personal fees from Simply Speaking; other support from Amarin Pharmaceuticals and Viking Pharmaceuticals; and non-financial support from the steering committee of OMERACT (an international organisation that develops measures for clinical trials and receives arm's length funding from 12 pharmaceutical companies), US Food and Drug Administration, Arthritis Advisory Committee, Veterans Affairs Rheumatology Field Advisory Committee, and the editor and director of the UAB Cochrane Musculoskeletal Group Satellite Center on Network Meta-analysis, outside of the submitted work. S T S Skou reports personal fees from Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy and Munksgaard and grants from The Lundbeck Foundation, outside of the submitted work; and being co-founder of GLA:D. GLA:D is a non-profit initiative hosted at University of Southern Denmark aimed at implementing clinical guidelines for osteoarthritis in clinical practice. J D Stanaway reports grants from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, during the conduct of the study. R Uddin reports travel and accommodation reimbursement from Deakin University Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, outside of the submitted work. All other authors declare no competing interests.