RESEARCH - Smoking ups risk for RA

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Smoking ups risk for rheumatoid arthritis

Last Updated: 2006-06-21 15:56:54 -0400 (Reuters Health)

By Charnicia Huggins

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Both current and former smokers are at increased

risk for developing rheumatoid arthritis, the findings of a new study

show -- at least for women.

" Rheumatoid arthritis, which is a severe and debilitating disease for many,

is yet another disease directly related to cigarette smoking, " study

co-author Dr. Costenbader, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston,

Massachusetts, told Reuters Health.

" Putting smoking as far behind you as possible is a very effective way of

reducing your risk of this and many other diseases, " she added.

To further investigate the potential link between cigarette smoking and

rheumatoid arthritis, Costenbader and her colleagues analyzed data collected

from nearly 104,000 women involved in the Nurses' Health Study. This

long-term follow-up study began in 1976 with female nurses aged 30 to 55

years.

A total of 680 women were diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis from 1976 to

2002, at an average age of 56 years, and approximately 60 percent of them

were positive for rheumatoid factor, an auto-antibody that is often found in

the blood years before the onset of the disease.

Current and former smokers were each more than 40 percent more likely to be

diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis than were never smokers, Costenbader and

her colleagues report in the American Journal of Medicine.

" Cigarette smoking is directly linked to the development of rheumatoid

arthritis, " Costenbader told Reuters Health.

The number of cigarettes smoked and the length of time the women smoked were

also associated with an increased risk of rheumatoid arthritis, such that

women who smoked more than 15 cigarettes per day and those who smoked more

than 20 years were each at an increased risk.

What's more, even after quitting, the increased risk of developing

rheumatoid arthritis was evident for up to 20 years, the researchers note.

The risk associated with smoking was particularly strong in women who were

positive for rheumatoid factor, the report indicates.

The researchers write, " one quarter of the 680 new cases of RA diagnosed

after the age of 35 years in this cohort could have been prevented if none

of these women had ever smoked. "

Passive cigarette smoking, however -- among those who lived with a parent

smoker while growing up or who were regularly exposed to cigarette smoke in

the workplace -- was not associated with an increased risk of rheumatoid

arthritis.

" Our findings add to the long list of known health hazards posed by

cigarette smoking and to the reasons that young women should be dissuaded

from starting and encouraged to quit smoking cigarettes, " they conclude.

SOURCE: American Journal of Medicine, June 2006

http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2006/06/21/eline/links/20060621elin028.html

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