Overweight and obese people are at risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
A study first published in Arthritis Care and Research journal also provides insights into the potential effects of weight on the health of individuals with RA.
It examines how overweight and obesity may affect the likelihood of the disease disappearing from the body when treated at an early stage.
The research suggests that the weight of a person may influence the effectiveness of RA therapies.
Dr Susan Goodman, managing director of the Hospital for Special Surgery and Weill Cornell Medical School, and her colleagues investigated the potential impact of weight on the likelihood that patients would achieve remission.
That is the stage at which the physical signs of the disease disappear, or are no longer observable, in the early years after an RA diagnosis.
The team examined data from the Canadian Early Arthritis Cohort, a multi-centre observational trial of patients with early RA who were treated by rheumatologists using guideline-based care.
“This study supports a call to action to identify and address this risk in patients,” said Dr Goodman.
“These findings have important implications for clinical care since rates of overweight and obesity continue to rise.”
Participants included 982 patients, 32 percent of whom had a healthy BMI (body mass index, the ratio of a person’s weight to their height), 35 percent overweight and 33 per cent obese. Within three years, 36 per cent of them experienced sustained remission.
Compared with patients with a healthy BMI, the overweight were 25 percent and the obese 47 percent less likely to experience sustained remission despite receiving similar treatment.
LARGEST STUDY
This was the largest study demonstrating the negative impact of excess weight on the RA disease activity.
In other studies, obesity has been associated with an increased risk of early death.
Women with RA had higher mortality rates than those without RA.
Among women with RA, 41 per cent died during an average follow-up of 17.0 years after the early RA period; among those without it, the figure was 29.2 per cent against 18.4 years.
In both groups, women with severe weight loss (lost more than 13 kilogrammes) had the highest mortality rates after the early RA period. Weight gain in the early RA period was not associated with death for either group.
“Our study is the first to focus on weight change around RA diagnosis and risk of death, rather than weight change in patients who had RA for many years, as in previous studies,” said Dr Goodman