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

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Being overweight or obese increases rheumatoid arthritis (RA) risk among women, particularly among those diagnosed at a younger age. Abdominal obesity may contribute to systemic inflammation more than general obesity; thus, we investigated whether abdominal obesity, compared to general obesity, predicted RA risk in 2 prospective cohorts: the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and NHS II.

Methods

We followed 50,682 women (1986-2014) in NHS and 47,597 women (1993-2015) in NHS II, without RA at baseline. Waist circumference (WC), BMI, health outcomes, and covariate data were collected through biennial questionnaires. Incident RA cases and serologic status were identified by chart review. We examined the associations of WC and BMI with RA risk using time-varying Cox proportion

SUBMITTER: Marchand NE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8006183 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature