Is rheumatoid arthritis associated with obesity?

Objective: to know the association of rheumatoid arthritis with obesity. material and methods: this study was conducted at medical b unit,postgraduate medical institute,lady reading hospital,peshawar,from january 2014 to december 2014. study design was cross sectional. sample size was 166 cases and equal number of age and sex matched controls. non probability consecutive sampling technique was used for sample collection. results: one hundred and sixty six patients of ra and equal number of age and sex matched controls were studied; mean age was 35 years ± 2.12 sd,69.87% were female,disease duration was 2 years ± 1.02 sd. in cases (ra) group,60 patients (36.14%) patients were obese and 106(63.85%) patients were non-obese; where as in control group,40(24%) controls were obese and 126(76%) controls were non-obese. odds ratio (or) of obesity in rheumatoid arthritis was 1.52,95% ci (0.938-2.45) and the p-value was 0.023 which was significant. out of 166 cases 116(69.87%) were females. out of i66 female cases,50(43.10%) were obese and or of obesity in female cases was 2.172,95 ci (1.24-3.78); p-value was 0.008,which was significant. male cases were 25. 12(24%) of male cases were obese and or of obesity in male cases of ra was 1.231,95% ci (0.503-3.016) and p-value was 0.82,which was not significant. out of 116 ra patients (72.28%) were rheumatoid factor (rf) positive and the remaining 46(27.71%) were rf negative. odds ratio (or) of obesity in rf positive cases was 1.47,95% ci (0.80-2.71); p-value being 0.22,was not significant. for rf negative cases the odds ratio of obesity was 2.02 95% ci (1.10-3.72) and the p-vale was 0.03,which was significant. conclusion: rheumatoid arthritis is associated with obesity in particular the association exists in female patients. © 2016 khyber medical college. all rights reserved.