Impact of lifestyle and comorbidities on seropositive rheumatoid arthritis risk

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic inflammatory arthritis in which primary prevention is key. A study used data from the Korean National Health Insurance Service (NHIS)-national sample cohort from 2002 to 2016 to assess the impact of lifestyle and comorbidities on RA development.
At baseline, demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, type of residential area, lifestyle behaviours, and comorbidities (including the Charlson Comorbidity Index, CCI) were included.
A total of 517,053 participants were included in the analysis for seropositive RA occurrence. Mean follow up duration was 71.5 and 142.3 person-months for seropositive RA occurrence group and non-occurrence group, respectively. Seropositive RA was diagnosed in 1,948 participants (0.37%) during follow-up.
Being aged between 40 and 79, a higher CCI, and hyperlipidemia resulted in elevated hazard ratios (HRs) for seropositive RA, whereas male gender, city residence, moderate alcohol consumption, high regular exercise and a BMI between 23 and 34.9 kg/m2 resulted in lower HRs.
The study demonstrates that high-intensity regular physical exercise and moderate alcohol consumption are negatively associated (protective) with seropositive RA occurrence, which are modifiable lifestyle habits that might aid the primary prevention of seropositive RA.
Source: Ro J, Kim SH, Kim HR, Lee SH, Min HK. Impact of lifestyle and comorbidities on seropositive rheumatoid arthritis risk from Korean health insurance data. Sci Rep. 2022 Feb 9;12(1):2201.