This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Awareness of increased CVD risk low among patients with RA

A vast majority of patients with rheumatoid arthritis were unaware of an association between the disease and the development of CVD, according to data published in Arthritis Research & Therapy.

“Individuals with RA are at substantially elevated risk for CVD. ... Despite improved treat-to-target strategies with early disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) therapy, premature mortality due to CVD persists,” Olivia R. Ghosh-Swaby, MS, from the Western University Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry in London, Ontario, Canada, and colleagues wrote.

“Little is known about RA patients’ knowledge about the association between RA and CVD, or how their perceived and actual CVD risk may differ,” they added.

Ghosh-Swaby and colleagues conducted a systematic literature review to assess the knowledge, awareness and perceived risk of CVD among patients with RA. The researchers searched three electronic databases for relevant studies published between 1990 and 2018 using search terms related to RA, CVD, knowledge, awareness or perceptions of CVD risk. They screened 33 abstracts and included six in the full analysis.

Overall, the six studies included 478 patients with established RA. Patients were mostly women and had a mean age range of 53 to 64 years.

The studies did not uniformly report RA disease characteristics relevant to CVD, such as the use of DMARDs, corticosteroids or NSAIDs, according to the researchers.

Most patients (73% to 97%) reported that they did not know there was an increased risk for CVD associated with RA. This lack of awareness occurred most often in patients with more traditional CVD risk factors.

Additionally, patients with RA often had misperceptions about CVD and most did not estimate their CVD accurately.

“We encourage additional studies and pragmatic trials of RA-specific educational interventions to be conducted,” Ghosh-Swaby and colleagues concluded. “These will help determine if knowledge gains are sustainable and have substantive impact on long-term CVD outcomes in RA. However, based on our findings, these interventions must be flexible in format, be designed with the input of content experts, including patients themselves, and above all, be tailored to meet the needs of patients.”

“A deeper understanding of the system-, physician-, and patient-level barriers preventing optimal awareness of this comorbidity is also needed,” they added. “Only then will interventions to improve CVD screening and management in RA be truly successful.” – by Alaina Tedesco

Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.