Increase in RA Incidence in Women Associated With Obesity

More than half of the increase in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in a population of Minnesota women can be attributed to obesity, according to an article published online April 18 in Arthritis Care & Research.Cynthia S. Crowson, MS, from the Division of Rheumatology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, and colleagues analyzed the records of 813 patients with RA and 813 controls from 1985 to 2007. They found that the incidence of RA increased at a rate of 9.2 per 100,000 women during the period and that obesity accounted for 52% — 4.8 per 100,000 — of the increase between 1995 and 2007. The strong association with obesity remained after adjustment for tobacco-smoking status.