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Study pinpoints lifetime risk of rheumatic diseases
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One in 12 women and one in 20 men will develop inflammatory autoimmune rheumatic disease during their lifetime, according to a study recently published online in Arthritis & Rheumatism.
The study also determined the lifetime risk of six other autoimmune rheumatic diseases for both men and women – findings which could have important implications for disease awareness campaigns.
“We estimated the lifetime risk for rheumatic disease for both sexes, something that had not been done before — separately or collectively,” Cynthia Crowson, lead author of the study, stated in a press release. “Prevalence and incidence rates existed, but prevalence figures underestimate individual risk and incidence rates express only a yearly estimate.”
To estimate the lifetime risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) — and other inflammatory autoimmune rheumatic disease like systemic lupus erythematosus, psoriatic arthritis, polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR), giant cell arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and Sjögren’s sydrome – the researchers used incidence rates obtained from population-based studies of rheumatic diseases among residents of Olmsted County, Minnesota, as well as mortality rates from life tables for the general population.
Data was mined from the Rochester Epidemiology Project, a long-term epidemiology resource. The cohort consisted of 1,179 patients diagnosed between 1955 and 2007.
The group found that the lifetime risk of RA developing in adults is 3.6% for women and 1.7% for men, with a lifetime risk of rheumatoid factor positive RA of 2.4% in women and 1.1% in men. PMR was found to be the second-most common inflammatory autoimmune rheumatic disease, with a lifetime risk of 2.4% for women and 1.7% among men.
Overall, the lifetime risk of inflammatory autoimmune rheumatic disease was 8.4% for women and 5.1% for men. The study authors consider this risk “substantial,” and stated their findings should “encourage more research on the value of early diagnosis and intervention for people with increase genetic risk of arthritis.”
Reference:
- Crowson CS. Arthritis Rheum. 2010 Dec 28. [Epub ahead of print].
Funding: This work was partially funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, 35 NIAMS (R01 AR46849) and made possible by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, 36 NIAMS (AR-30582).
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