Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Dec;44(12):2863-2871.
doi: 10.1007/s00296-024-05748-5. Epub 2024 Nov 22.

The association of obesity and the risk of rheumatoid arthritis according to abdominal obesity status: a nationwide population-based study in Korea

Jung Sun Lee #  1 , Ji Seon Oh #  2 , Sehee Kim  3 , Ye-Jee Kim  3 , Seokchan Hong  4 , Yong-Gil Kim  4 , Chang-Keun Lee  4 , Bin Yoo  5
Affiliations

The association of obesity and the risk of rheumatoid arthritis according to abdominal obesity status: a nationwide population-based study in Korea

Jung Sun Lee et al. Rheumatol Int. 2024 Dec.

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the association between obesity or changes in body mass index (BMI) and the risk of RA considering the abdominal obesity status.

Methods: We included individuals aged 23 to 60 who underwent a national health examination in 2012-2013 (baseline) and four years prior. Obesity was defined by a BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2. The change in BMI over 4 years was divided into quartiles. Cox proportional hazard analysis was performed to assess the association of obesity and BMI change with the risk of RA.

Results: A total of 6,207,246 subjects were included, and 7,859 incident cases of RA were identified. Obesity was associated with a reduced risk of RA in males (HR 0.78, 95% CI 0.71-0.85) and females (HR 0.91, 95% CI 0.85-0.97). In subgroup analysis according to abdominal obesity status, the associations were observed for obesity with normal waist circumference (WC) in males (HR 0.75, 95% CI 0.67-0.84) and females (HR 0.88, 95% CI 0.81-0.95). In terms of BMI change, compared to the stable BMI group (quartile 2), the third (HR 0.92, CI 0.85-0.99) and highest quartile (HR 0.89, CI 0.83-0.96) showed an inverse association with the risk of RA in females, particularly in those with normal WC.

Conclusion: Obesity was associated with a lower risk of RA, especially among individuals with a normal WC. Increased BMI was also associated with a lower risk of RA, but this association was mainly observed in females and specifically for those with normal WC.

Keywords: Abdominal obesity; Epidemiology; Obesity; Rheumatoid arthritis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflict of interests: Author JSL, Author JSO, Author SK, Author YJK, Author SH, Author YGK, Author CKL, and Author BY declare that they have no conflict of interest. Ethical approval: This study adhered to the ethical guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Seoul Veterans Hospital, Seoul, Korea (IRB No. VHSMC23020) dated 12th December 2022. The requirement for informed consent was waived because an existing database was used.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Popko K, Gorska E, Stelmaszczyk-Emmel A, Plywaczewski R, Stoklosa A, Gorecka D, Pyrzak B, Demkow U (2010) Proinflammatory cytokines IL-6 and TNF-α and the development of inflammation in obese subjects. Eur J Med Res 15:120. https://doi.org/10.1186/2047-783X-15-S2-120 - DOI - PubMed - PMC
    1. Benson R, Zhao SS, Goodson N, Abernethy R, Mewar D, Barnes T (2020) Biologic monotherapy in the biologic naïve patient with rheumatoid arthritis (RA): results from an observational study. Rheumatol Int 40:1045–1049. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-020-04531-6 - DOI - PubMed - PMC
    1. Crowson CS, Matteson EL, Davis JM 3rd, Gabriel SE (2013) Contribution of obesity to the rise in incidence of rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken) 65:71–77. https://doi.org/10.1002/acr.21660 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lu B, Hiraki LT, Sparks JA, Malspeis S, Chen CY, Awosogba JA, Arkema EV, Costenbader KH, Karlson EW (2014) Being overweight or obese and risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis among women: a prospective cohort study. Ann Rheum Dis 73:1914–1922. https://doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-205459 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Linauskas A, Overvad K, Symmons D, Johansen MB, Stengaard-Pedersen K, de Thurah A (2019) Body Fat Percentage, Waist Circumference, and Obesity As Risk Factors for Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Danish Cohort Study. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken) 71:777–786. https://doi.org/10.1002/acr.23694 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources