Women Smokers at Greater Risk for Rheumatoid Arthritis

Study finds lighting up doubles odds among those without genetic risk

FRIDAY, Aug. 4, 2006 (HealthDay News) -- Smoking nearly doubles the odds of rheumatoid arthritis in women who don't have genetic risk factors for the disease, a U.S. study says.

Researchers compared 115 postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis to 466 women without the disease. The women were participants in the long-term Iowa Women's Health Study tracking participants' lifestyles, such as smoking.

This new study, published in the journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, found that smoking nearly doubled the risk of rheumatoid arthritis in women who did not have the most well established risk factor for the disease -- HLA-DRB1 SE.

However, the researchers from the University of California, San Francisco found no increased risk for the disease among women smokers who did have HLA-DRB1 SE.

The study was limited to older white women, so it's not clear if the same results would be found in other age groups or ethnicities, the researchers noted.

In rheumatoid arthritis, the patient's immune system attacks the joint linings. In these kinds of complex autoimmune diseases, interaction between genes and environmental factors is considered to play an important role.

More information

The Arthritis Foundation has more about rheumatoid arthritis.

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