Gender is an issue in rheumatoid arthritis

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Women with rheumatoid arthritis are less likely to experience remission than men.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a painful disease involving inflammation and swelling of the joints. It is an autoimmune disease, caused by an over-reaction of the immune system against the patient's own body. The disease may get progressively worse or relapse and remit. In a new study, researchers looked at how gender affected the progression of rheumatoid arthritis.

They studied a group of almost 700 adults who had been recently diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Their average age was 58 and two thirds were women. After two years, the disease had gone into remission in just under 40 per cent. After five years, the proportion in remission was about the same. But only one in five of the study group was in remission at both time points. Gender was a significant factor in disease progression with one third of the women being in remission at two years compared to nearly half of the men. After five years, the gap was wider with just under 31 per cent of the women in remission and 52 per cent of the men. Women did not have more severe disease than men at the start but it quickly became more severe and progressed more rapidly. More research is needed now into why rheumatoid arthritis seems to hit women harder.

Source
Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases online 6th December 2006

Please take a moment to give us your comments. For questions about Health matters you may check our "Questions & Answers" Portal and Service.