Binu Jacob, PhD, of the Toronto Hospital Research Institute, Ontario, Canada, and colleagues found that disease activity, as reflected in the number of swollen and painful joints, was significantly higher in current smokers than in never smokers, even after adjusting for age, sex and rheumatoid factor.
In contrast, baseline treatment regimen was not affected by smoking status.
"Smoking is a well known risk factor for the development of rheumatoid arthritisBut not many studies have shown an effect of smoking on disease activity, Dr Jacob said. "And while we don't know for sure what effect smoking has on the disease, I think it can interfere with the effect of treatment.
The study was presented at the 69th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Rheumatology Association.
Ontario research on link between tobacco and rheumatoid arthritis
For this research, data from 2090 rheumatoid arthritis patients enrolled in the Ontario Best Practices Research Initiative (OBRI), which is a clinical registry of rheumatoid arthritis patients in routine care, were analysed.
Patients were divided into 3 groups: non-smokers, ex-smokers and current smokers. Baseline demographics, treatment regimens, and disease activity rates were then compared between the 3 groups.
In the total count, 16.4 % of patients were identified as current smokers, another 38.9 % were ex-smokers and 44.7 % were never smokers.
Different medical and patient-based markers were significantly higher for smokers compared to non-smokers. Disease activity markers in former smokers are twice as high as those of never smokers.
"The implications of these findings are really valid for the patients themselves," says Dr Jacob. If patients realise that smoking is making their rheumatic disease activity worse, they may think that if they quit smoking, they will be able to stop smoking," he says. they might feel better. Even if doctors make most of the treatment decisions, patients should know that by changing their lifestyle, they can also improve their disease.
Source: medscape.com
