ASSOCIATION BETWEEN THE NUTRITIONAL STATUS AND RISK OF CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES IN PATIENTS WITH RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS ACCOMPANIED IN A REFERENCE CENTER IN A BRAZIL NORTHEAST REFERENCE CENTER

Abstract

Introduction: Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune and inflammatory disease, chronic and progressive, highly limiting, which can be aggravated when the nutritional status of this patient has dystrophy, so the body composition can influence the activity of this disease. Objective: To evaluate the association between nutritional status and the risk of cardiovascular disease in patients with rheumatoid arthritis in a reference center in the northeast. Material and Methods: Cross-sectional study carried out in a rheumatology clinic of a reference center in Northeast Brazil (Recife / PE) with patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Anthropometric measurements of weight and height were taken to assess the parameter of Body Mass Index (BMI). Measures of waist circumference (WC) and hip circumference (HC) were also taken to assess the parameters of waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), in order to investigate cardiovascular risk. The data were treated using the SPSS version 17.0 for Windows and Excel 2010. For the correlation analysis, the Chi-square test was used. The level of significance was set at 5%. The Bioethics Research Committee of the Instituto de Medicina Integral Professor Fernando Figueira (IMIP) approved the present study under nº 19163619.1.0000.5201 the participants signed the Informed Consent Form (ICF). Results: The study included 54 patients aged between 18 and 58 years old and a mean age of 47.26 years +/- 11.72 SD, 96.3% of whom were female. 42.9% of the studied population had obesity according to the Body Mass Index, followed by 35.7% with overweight. According to WC 52.6% had an increased risk for cardiovascular diseases. WHR and WHtR found risk for cardiovascular diseases in 64.9% and 84.5%, respectively. The association between BMI and WC was 0.000 p-value, whereas for BMI and WHR, WHtR was 0.176 p-value and 0.095 p-value respectively. Conclusions: There was a prevalence of obesity and overweight in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, which may suggest a greater risk for disease activity, and difficulty in controlling symptoms.