Abstract
BackgroundIn women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) it has been observed that during pregnancy a majority of patients experience amelioration, but after delivery a relapse of the disease is common. However, there are few studies, with diverging results, addressing the effect of parity on the severity of RA over time. Our aim was to explore the impact of parity, with stratification for anti-citrullinated protein antibody (ACPA) status as well as for onset during reproductive age or not.MethodsFemale RA cases aged 18–70 years were recruited for the Epidemiological Investigation of Rheumatoid Arthritis (EIRA). Information on disease severity (the health assessment questionnaire (HAQ) and the disease activity score 28 (DAS28)) was retrieved from the Swedish Rheumatology Quality Register at inclusion and 3, 6, 12 and 24 months after diagnosis. Mixed models were used to compare mean DAS28 and HAQ scores over time in parous and nulliparous women. Mean differences at individual follow-up visits were compared using analysis of covariance. The odds of having DAS28 or HAQ above the median in parous verus nulliparous women were estimated in logistic regression models.ResultsA total of 1237 female cases (mean age 51 years, 65 % ACPA-positive) were included. ACPA-negative parous women, aged 18–44 years, had on average 1.17 units higher DAS28 (p < 0.001) and 0.43 units higher HAQ score (p < 0.001) compared to nulliparous women during the follow-up time, adjusted for age. In this subgroup, the average DAS28 and HAQ scores were significantly higher in parous women at all follow-up time points. Younger parous ACPA-negative women were significantly more likely to have DAS28 and HAQ values above the median compared to nulliparous women at all follow-up visits. No association between parity and severity of ACPA-positive disease was observed.ConclusionsParity was a predictor of a more severe RA among ACPA-negative younger women, which might indicate that immunomodulatory changes during and after pregnancy affect RA severity, in particular for the ACPA-negative RA phenotype.
Highlights
In women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) it has been observed that during pregnancy a majority of patients experience amelioration, but after delivery a relapse of the disease is common
In a recent study we reported that parous women of reproductive age had an increased risk of anti-citrullinated protein antibody (ACPA)-negative RA, and that this increased risk was seen mainly in women who gave birth during the year of symptom onset
The EIRA study We studied female incident RA cases aged 18–70 years, included between 1996 and 2009 in the Swedish Epidemiological Investigation of Rheumatoid Arthritis (EIRA) study, a population-based case–control study performed in parts of Sweden
Summary
In women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) it has been observed that during pregnancy a majority of patients experience amelioration, but after delivery a relapse of the disease is common. Our aim was to explore the impact of parity, with stratification for anti-citrullinated protein antibody (ACPA) status as well as for onset during reproductive age or not. Female sex and older age are known risk factors for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In a recent study we reported that parous women of reproductive age had an increased risk of ACPA-negative RA, and that this increased risk was seen mainly in women who gave birth during the year of symptom onset. There was no association with risk of ACPA-positive RA [9]
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