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Younger women with RA at increased risk for fractures
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Among rheumatoid arthritis patients, women had an increased risk for fractures at a younger age compared with men, according to study results.
“It is important that women with rheumatoid arthritis [RA] who are under the age of 50 to know that even though they are young, they still need to take precautions to prevent fractures,” researcher Shreyasee Amin, MD, CM, MPH, of the divisions of rheumatology and epidemiology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., told Healio.com.
Shreyasee Amin
Amin and colleagues studied a population-based inception cohort of 1,171 patients (70% women, mean age at RA diagnosis, 56 years; 30% men, mean age at diagnosis, 58 years) diagnosed with incident RA between 1955 and 2007. They also included 1,171 matched controls without RA taken from medical records of the Rochester Epidemiology Project. Median follow-up was 9 years.
Women with RA displayed a significantly increased risk for fragility fractures (HR=1.63; 95% CI, 1.36-1.96), as did men with RA (HR=1.40; 95% CI, 1.02-1.93) compared with controls. Findings were consistent for women and men aged 50 years or older at RA diagnosis (HR=1.43; 95% CI, 1.16-1.77 and HR=1.34; 95% CI, 0.92-1.94, respectively) and for women and men diagnosed before age 50 (HR=2.34; 95% CI, 1.61-3.42 and HR=1.74; 95% CI, 0.91-3.30, respectively).
Researchers reported, however, that young women with RA were at increased fracture risk even before age 50 (HR=1.95; 95% CI, 1.08-3.5), while men were not (HR=0.82; 95% CI, 0.28-2.45).
“Men with RA are at risk for fragility fractures when they are older, particularly at major osteoporotic sites, while women with RA are at increased risk for fragility fractures at any age after diagnosis,” the researchers concluded. “Specifically, we found that young women are at increased risk for fragility fractures occurring even before they reach the age of 50 years.”
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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