Fikriye Figen AYHAN1, Şebnem ATAMAN2, Aylin REZVANİ3, Nurdan PAKER4, Nurettin TAŞTEKİN5, Taciser KAYA6, Hatice BODUR7, Mahmut YENER8, Pelin YAZGAN9, Beril DOĞU10, Alev GÜRGAN11

1Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Ankara Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
2Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Division of Rheumatology, Medical Faculty of Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
3Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Bezm-i Alem Valide Sultan Vakıf Gureba Training and Research Hospital, İstanbul, Turkey
4Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, İstanbul Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Training and Research Hospital, İstanbul, Turkey
5Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Medical Faculty of Trakya University, Edirne, Turkey
6Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, İzmir Training and Research Hospital, İzmir, Turkey
7Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
8Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Medical Faculty of Süleyman Demirel University, Isparta, Turkey
9Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Medical Faculty of Harran University, Şanlıurfa, Turkey
10Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Şişli Etfal Training and Research Hospital, İstanbul, Turkey
11Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, İzmir Atatürk Training and Research Hospital, İzmir, Turkey

Keywords: Body mass index, disease activity, obesity, radiographic damage, rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract

Objectives: This study aims to investigate the prevalence of obesity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and associations with disease outcomes.
Patients and methods: The study population comprised of 1,038 patients with RA (198 males, 840 females; mean age 56.1±12.6 years; range 19 to 94 years) who had been included in National RA-Registry. RA disease activity measures, physical function, quality of life, joint destruction, laboratory tests, as well as pain, fatigue, general health, and patient and physician global health assessments on a visual analog scale were collected.
Results: Our patients had established RA with mean disease duration of 10.2±8.8 years and moderate disease activity (disease activity score in 28 joints: mean 3.7±1.6). According to the body mass index (BMI), 70% of the patients were overweight (n=362, 34.9%) or obese (n=364, 35.1%). These patients had higher disease activity scores in 28 joints, visual analog scale-pain and visual analog scale-patient global scores, and higher levels of fasting blood glucose; however, they had lower radiographic scores than normal-BMI patients (p<0.05). Regression analyses showed that the BMI was independently and inversely associated with disease activity scores in 28 joints and Sharp/van der Heijde scores after the adjustments for biologic and treatment-related factors (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Our findings indicate that obesity is more common in patients with RA than the general population. High disease activity and low radiographic damage were associated with high BMI in this National RA-Registry.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Financial Disclosure

The authors received no financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article.