Occupational Exposure to Asbestos and Risk of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Anna Ilar¹, Per Gustavsson¹, Pernilla Wiebert¹, Camilla Bengtsson¹, Lars Klareskog² and Lars Alfredsson¹, ¹The Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, ²Rheumatology unit, Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

Meeting: 2017 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting

Date of first publication: September 18, 2017

Keywords: Environmental factors, Epidemiologic methods, Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and work, Workforce

Session Information

Date: Sunday, November 5, 2017

Title: Epidemiology and Public Health Poster I: Rheumatoid Arthritis

Session Type: ACR Poster Session A

Session Time: 9:00AM-11:00AM

Background/Purpose:

Due to the known association between silica dust and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), we wanted to study the association between RA and another silicate mineral; asbestos. The aim was to estimate the risk of seropositive or seronegative RA from ever occupational asbestos exposure as well as years with exposure.

Methods:

The study base consisted of men and women living in Sweden between 2006 and 2013. RA patients were identified from the Swedish Rheumatology Quality Register (SRQ). We matched ten controls from the national population register per case on age, county and sex. Data on occupational histories were collected from the national population and housing censuses carried out in 1960, 1970, 1975, 1980 and 1990. A job-exposure matrix (JEM) containing historical exposure estimates from 1955-1995 to asbestos was applied to the study participants’ occupational histories. We used conditional logistic regression to assess the odds ratios (ORs) and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) of RA associated with ever exposure and years of exposure to asbestos. ORs were adjusted for ever exposure to respirable crystalline silica dust and household disposable income divided into quartiles.

Results:

9 704 cases and 90 271 controls were included in the analysis. Ever vs. never asbestos exposure resulted in an OR of 1.35 (95 % CI: 1.22-1.48) among men and 1.10 (95 % CI: 0.94-1.29) among women for seropositive RA. The ORs decreased to 1.12 (95 % CI: 1.01-1.25) and 1.02 (95 % CI: 0.86-1.22) for men and women respectively after adjusting for silica exposure and household disposable income. Asbestos exposed men were more likely than women to have worked with asbestos for a longer period of time and their risk of seropositive RA increased with years with the exposure. Male participants with more than 20 years of asbestos exposure at work had an adjusted OR of 1.27 (1.06-1.53, p for trend: 0.008).

Conclusion:

Asbestos exposure is associated with seropositive RA among men. The increased risk remained after adjustments for potential confounding from silica exposure and household disposable income.

Disclosure: A. Ilar, None; P. Gustavsson, None; P. Wiebert, None; C. Bengtsson, None; L. Klareskog, None; L. Alfredsson, None.

To cite this abstract in AMA style:

Ilar A, Gustavsson P, Wiebert P, Bengtsson C, Klareskog L, Alfredsson L. Occupational Exposure to Asbestos and Risk of Rheumatoid Arthritis [abstract]. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2017; 69 (suppl 10). https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/occupational-exposure-to-asbestos-and-risk-of-rheumatoid-arthritis/. Accessed .

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