Correlation of Body Mass index with Disease Activity in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Abstract

Objective:  To evaluate correlation between body mass index and disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis patients.

Methodology: This comparative case-control observational study was conducted at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, on rheumatoid arthritis patients visiting the (Out Patient Departments) OPDs between July, 2021 and December, 2021.The study subjects were selected by non-probability convenient sampling from outpatient department. Body mass index and disease activity score were calculated for rheumatoid arthritis patients in OPD. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 was used for data analysis. Mean ± S.D was calculated for age, body mass index and disease activity.  Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used for establishing an association between variables. P value less than 0.05 was considered significant. Simple scatter with fit line was plotted to show graphical association between body mass index and disease activity.

 Results: A total 60 patients with 35 (58.3%) female and 25(41.7%) were male. The mean age was 47.21 years. The mean DAS-28 for normal weight group was 2.74 and for overweight group was 4.17. There was positive correlation between body mass index and DAS-28 with r was 0.584 (p<0.05). When correlation on gender basis was calculated, for female patients r was 0.653 and for males 0.529, respectively. 

Conclusion: In Rheumatoid Arthritis patients, body mass index is positively correlated with disease activity. Evaluation of this requires trial on large scale, thus, helping in tailoring new management plan, including, weight reduction rather than escalating drug treatment for disease control and improving quality of life in rheumatoid arthritis patients.