Fractures after rheumatoid arthritis a population-based study

✍ Scribed by Joseph R. Hooyman; L. Joseph Melton III; Audrey M. Nelson; W. Michael O'Fallon; B. Lawrence Riggs

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1984
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 718 KB
• Volume: 27
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0004-3591
• DOI: 10.1002/art.1780271205

✦ Synopsis

In a population-based study, the incidence of osteoporotic fractures in patients who have been diagnosed as having rheumatoid arthritis was investigated. This incidence was found to be increased, though not dramatically so: the relative risk for hip fracture, for example, was 1.5. Univariate analyses generally indicated increased risk associated with increasing age, earlier age at diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, disability, impaired ambulation, steroid use, and thinness, and decreased risk associated with obesity and estr'ogen use. In multivariate analyses, only aging, impaired ambulation, and thinness were identified as independent risk factors.

Some reports suggest that osteoporosis occurs with increased frequency among rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients (1,2) and that this results in an unusual number of proximal femur and other osteoporotic fractures (3-9). Others contend that the risk of proxi-From the Mayo Medical School,