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Personal and family medical history correlates of rheumatoid arthritis
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Personal and family medical history correlates of rheumatoid arthritis

Anneclaire J. De Roos, Glinda S. Cooper, Michael C. Alavanja and Dale P. Sandler
Annals of epidemiology, v 18(6), pp 433-439
01 Jun 2008
PMID: 18346911
url
https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc3179430View
Accepted (AM) Open

Abstract

Life Sciences & Biomedicine Public, Environmental & Occupational Health Science & Technology
PURPOSE: Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) often have comorbidities related to immune dysfunction, however, the timing of comorbidities relative to RA diagnosis and treatment is not clear. We studied personal and family medical history correlates of incident and prevalent RA in women. METHODS: We used a nested case-control design including women in the Agricultural Health Study (AHS). Physician-confirmed cases of RA (n = 135) were matched to five controls each (n = 675) by birth date. We used logistic regression to examine associations between conditions listed in personal and family medical histories and both incident and prevalent RA, as estimated by odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIS). RESULTS: The risk of incident RA was associated with personal medical history of nonmelanoma skin cancer (OR = 4.4,95% CI: 1.4-14. 1), asthma or reactive lung disease (OR = 3.7, 95% CI: 1.3-10.5), and cataract (OR = 3.3, 95% CI: 1.0-10.8). Personal history of herpes zoster was associated with prevalent RA (OR = 2.4, 95% CI: 1.2-4.8), but not with incident RA. There were no consistent associations between family medical history and RA. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with medical conditions indicating compromised immunity are at increased risk of developing RA. These results may indicate common pathogenesis of an environmental or genetic nature between such diseases.

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Domestic collaboration
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Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
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