The Effect of Osteoporosis on Rheumatoid Arthritis Disease Activity
Main Author: Fahad Alwan Almuntashri
Makkah, Saudi Arabia
Umm Alqura University
Background:
Osteoporosis (OP) is one of the most common comorbidities associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We aim to study the impact of OP on RA management and disease activity in our cohort of patients.
Material(s) and Method(s):
A retrospective cohort study of 580 patients with RA alone or RA with OP was performed. The DAS28 score was used to assess disease activity. The data was collected from (RASD), a hospital electronic database. Chi-square and fisher exact test were performed to compare disease activity between disease groups.
Results:
A total of 408 patients were included in this study. Three hundred fifty-three patients (86.5%) had only RA, and 55 (13.5%) had RA with OP. Both groups had a similar age, gender, ethnicity, BMI distribution, frequency of comorbidity, and vitamin D levels. Patients with RA with OP had RA longer than patients with RA alone (79.5±52.5 months vs. 106.6±62.6 months, independent t-test, p=0.01). The 2 groups had similar disease activity at their first three clinical visits. Both groups had similar disability at their first visit but RA and OP patients had greater disability at their 2nd and 3rd visits (independent t-test, p=0.0001 for each visit). Both groups were treated with biologic and non-biologic drugs with a similar frequency, types of drugs. The RA with OP patients received steroid more frequently than RA patients (61.7% vs. 41.7%, Chi-square test, p=0.03)
Conclusion:
This study shows that RA with OP patients and RA patients had similar disease activity and received similar RA treatments, although RA with OP patients were more frequently treated with steroids. The RA with OP patients had greater disability than RA patients. We recommend physicians focus on controlling the disease activity of RA, perform early screening for OP, and consider early treatment of RA associated symptoms and findings of OP.
- Copyright: © Saudi Medical Journal
This is an Open Access journal and articles published are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (CC BY-NC). Readers may copy, distribute, and display the work for non-commercial purposes with the proper citation of the original work.
