A severe inflammatory disease that affects the joints, rheumatoid arthritis affects approximately 200,000 people in France, or 0.3% of the national population.
Women are, on average, 2 to 3 times more affected than men: if the disease generally begins with painful stiffening of certain joints (wrists, hands, fingers), it progresses in the form of “flares” up to at the appearance of joint deformities and tendon destruction.
According to a new American study published in the specialist journal Arthritis Care & Research, patients who suffer from rheumatoid arthritis and are overweight (or obese) are less likely than others to experience a period of remission.
Less effective treatments for overweight or obesity
To reach this conclusion, the researchers followed 982 patients for 3 years: among them, 32% had a “normal” body mass index (between 18.5 and 25), 35% were overweight (BMI between 25 and 30) and 33% suffered from obesity (BMI greater than 30).
Result ? At the end of the observation period, 36% of patients had achieved prolonged remission. On the other hand, patients suffering from overweight had, on average, 25% less chance of achieving this objective, and this statistic even rose to 47% in patients with obesity.
“This work has enabled us to observe that current treatments for rheumatoid arthritis are probably less effective in overweight or obese people” conclude the American researchers.
As a reminder, in France, 41% of men and 25.3% of women are overweight. Obesity, meanwhile, affects 15.8% of French people and 15.6% of French women.
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