Nutritional profile in rheumatoid arthritis

Background: Atherosclerosis in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients may be aggravated by obesity. Objective: To study the nutritional status of patients with RA. Methods: Observational cross sectional study of 102 RA. Patients were studied for clinical, demographic, serologic, activity and nutritional profile. In the latter we included: measurement of body mass index (BMI), waist-hip ratio; bicipital skinfold (BSF) and their adequacy; triceps skinfold measure (TSF) and its adequacy and arm muscle circumference (AMC) and its adequacy. Association studies of nominal data were done using Fisher and chi-square tests and the Mann Whitney and unpaired Student t tests for numerical data. For correlation calculations the Spearman test was used. Results: In the sample there were 14/102 men, 88/102 women with mean age of 52.1 +/- 11.5 years and mean disease duration of 10.6 +/- 7.47 years. The mean waist-hip ratio was 0.92 +/- 0.07. According to BMI 30.3% had normal weight and 65.5% a total weight above normal. According to BSF, 74.5% were normal and 25.5% had depletion of muscular mass; according to TSF, 83.3% were normal and 16.7% depleted. Association of nutritional variables with gender, rheumatoid factor, age, nodules, and disease activity showed no differences (p = NS) except for a lower waist/hip ratio in individuals with nodules (p = 0.02) and a modest correlation of TSF with disease duration (p = 0.02; R = 0.22; 95% CI = 0.01 to 0.40). Conclusion: We found a high prevalence of overweight and obesity in patients with RA and a small frequency of muscle depletion. (C) 2014 Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.