ACR Meeting Abstracts

ACR Meeting Abstracts

Abstract Number: 0193

Patients with Asthma Have a Higher Risk of Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Nipith Charoenngam1, Ben Ponvilawan1, Thanitsara Rittiphairoj1, Surapa Tornsatitkul1, Phuuwadith Wattanachayakul1, Pongprueth Rujirachun1 and Patompong Ungprasert2, 1Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand, 2Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, Cleveland Heights, OH

Meeting: ACR Convergence 2020

Keywords: , ,

Session Information

Date: Friday, November 6, 2020

Session Title: RA – Diagnosis, Manifestations, & Outcomes Poster I: Multimorbidity

Session Type: Poster Session A

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

Background/Purpose: Studies have reported the association between asthma and elevated risk of several chronic diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes mellitus and coronary heart disease. Additionally, there are data on the association between asthma and risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), although the results from existing studies are largely inconsistent. The current systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted in order to investigate whether patients with asthma have an increased risk of rheumatoid arthritis by identifying all available studies and summarizing their results together.

Methods: Potentially eligible studies were identified from Medline and EMBASE databases from inception to November 2019 using search strategy that comprised of terms for “Asthma” and “Rheumatoid arthritis”. Eligible cohort study must consist of one cohort of patients with asthma and another cohort of individuals without asthma. Then, the study must report relative risk (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) comparing incident RA between the groups. Eligible case-control studies must include cases with RA and controls without RA.  Then, the study must explore their history of asthma. Odds ratio (OR) with 95% CIs of the association between RA and prior history of asthma must be reported. Point estimates with standard errors were retrieved from each study and were combined together using the generic inverse variance method of DerSimonian and Laird.

Results: A total of 21,824 articles were identified. After two rounds of independent review by three investigators, 5 cohort studies and 11 case-control studies met the eligibility criteria and were included into the meta-analysis. Patients with asthma had a significantly higher risk of incident RA compared with individuals without asthma with the pooled RR of 1.48 (95% CI, 1.20 – 1.82; I2 92%).

Conclusion: This systematic review and meta-analysis found a significant association between asthma and a higher risk of incident RA.

Figure 1: Forest plot of the meta-analysis of risk of RA in individuals with asthma versus individuals without asthma

Disclosure: N. Charoenngam, None; B. Ponvilawan, None; T. Rittiphairoj, None; S. Tornsatitkul, None; P. Wattanachayakul, None; P. Rujirachun, None; P. Ungprasert, None.

To cite this abstract in AMA style:

Charoenngam N, Ponvilawan B, Rittiphairoj T, Tornsatitkul S, Wattanachayakul P, Rujirachun P, Ungprasert P. Patients with Asthma Have a Higher Risk of Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis [abstract]. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2020; 72 (suppl 10). https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/patients-with-asthma-have-a-higher-risk-of-rheumatoid-arthritis-a-systematic-review-and-meta-analysis/. Accessed January 30, 2023.

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