Abdominal Obesity in Comparison with General Obesity and Risk of Developing Rheumatoid Arthritis in Women

• DOI: 10.3899/jrheum.200056
• Publication Date: 2020-07-15T16:19:42Z
• Authors: Nathalie E. Marchand; Jeffrey A. Sparks; Sara K. Tedeschi; Susan Malspeis; Karen H. Costenbader; Elizabeth W. Karlson; Bing Lu
• Keywords: Abdominal obesity

Objective. Being overweight or obese increases rheumatoid arthritis (RA) risk among women, particularly those diagnosed at a younger age. Abdominal obesity may contribute to systemic inflammation more than general obesity; thus, we investigated whether abdominal obesity, compared predicted RA in 2 prospective cohorts: the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) and NHS II. Methods. We followed 50,682 women (1986–2014) 47,597 (1993–2015) II, without baseline. Waist circumference (WC), BMI, health outcomes, covariate data were collected through biennial questionnaires. Incident cases serologic status identified by chart review. examined associations of WC BMI with using time-varying Cox proportional hazards models. repeated analyses restricted age ≤ 55 years. Results. During 28 years follow-up, 844 incident (527 NHS, 317 II). Women > 88 cm (35 in) had increased (HR 1.22, 95% CI 1.06–1.41). A similar association was observed for seropositive RA, which stronger young middle-aged women. Further adjustment attenuated null. In contrast, associated ≥ 30 vs < 25 1.33, 1.05–1.68) even after adjusting WC, and, as analyses, this Conclusion. risk, women; however, it did not independently beyond obesity.