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Comorbidity at Disease Onset Seen in Half of Patients With Early RA
Comorbidities were common among patients with early rheumatoid arthritis, with a considerable number of added comorbidities observed through 5 years of follow-up, suggesting inflammation may play a key role in the context of disease and comorbidities, according to recently published research.
A group of 726 patients with early onset rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were identified from the Swedish Early RA Register and were enrolled between December 1995 and November 2012. Although 52 patients died during follow-up, data from 5 years of follow-up were available for the remaining patients. Patients were fully assessed at baseline and at 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, 36 months and 60 months.
Patient records were examined and a self-reported questionnaire related to comorbidities was administered at baseline and 5 year follow-up. Comorbidities recorded included myocardial, vascular, pulmonary neurologic, endocrine, renal, liver, gastrointestinal, cancer/immune and miscellaneous disease categories. Treatment with thyroxine or anti-hypertensive medications was defined as evidence of hypothyreosis or hypertension, respectively.
Analysis showed 53.2% of patients had one or more comorbidity at baseline. Hypertension as the most common comorbidity and was found in 27.3% of patients. Obstructive pulmonary disease was identified in 13.9% of patients, diabetes in 8%, hypothyroidism in 6.3% of patients and malignancy in 5% of patients.
At 5 year follow-up, 41% of patients developed a new comorbidity. Of these patients, 27.8% had one comorbidity; 9.1% of patients had two comorbidities; 3.4% had three comorbidities; and 0.7% had four comorbidities. The most common new comorbidity was hypertension in 15.1% of patients, followed by malignancy in 7.6% of patients. – by Shirley Pulawski
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.