Abstract
BackgroundThe risk and prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is still obscure. The current study was aimed to systematically review and meta-analyse the risk ratio (RR) and prevalence of COPD in RA.MethodsA comprehensive systematic review was conducted based on PubMed, Web of Science and Cochrane Library from inception to April 30, 2018. The primary outcome of our study was the RR of COPD in RA patients compared with controls, and secondary was the prevalence of COPD in RA patients. Pooled effect sizes were calculated according to fixed effect model or random effects model depending on heterogeneity.ResultsSix and eight studies reported the RR and prevalence of COPD in RA respectively. Compared with controls, RA patients have significant increased risk of incident COPD with pooled RR 1.82 (95% CI = 1.55 to 2.10, P < 0.001). The pooled prevalence of COPD in RA patients was 6.2% (95% CI = 4.1 to 8.3%). Meta-regression identified that publication year was an independent covariate negatively associated with the RR of COPD, and smoker proportion of RA population was also positively associated with the prevalence of COPD significantly in RA patients.ConclusionsThe present meta-analysis has demonstrated the significant increased risk and high prevalence of COPD in RA patients. Patients with RA had better cease tobacco use and rheumatologists should pay attention to the monitoring of COPD for the prevention and control of COPD.
Highlights
The risk and prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is still obscure
Two studies were removed for reporting data of duplicate population before qualitative synthesis and 14 studies met the inclusion criteria eventually, of which six studies [15, 17, 18, 26–28] reported the risk of COPD and eight studies [2, 29–35] presented the data of the prevalence of COPD in RA
risk ratio (RR) of COPD in RA Six literatures reported the RR of COPD in RA patients, ranged from 1.52 to 2.57, contained more than 58143 RA patients and 15999 controls
Summary
The risk and prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is still obscure. COPD is characterized with the persistent airflow limitation resulting from inhaling noxious particles and gases [10, 11]. In addition to these risk factors as cigarette smoke, recent studies. A recent meta-analysis reminded the tendency of comorbidity of COPD in RA patients, with the limitation of synthesizing the evidence of only four original studies before December 2014 [16]. Meta-analysis focus on the prevalence of COPD in RA patients was still devoid. We conducted the present meta-analysis to evaluate the risk and prevalence of COPD in RA patients comprehensively
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
