Rheumatoid arthritis may be on the rise in women, according to research presented this week at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Scientific Meeting in San Francisco, California. Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease that causes pain, stiffness, swelling, and limitation in the motion and function of multiple joints. Though joints are the principal body parts affected by RA, inflammation can develop in other organs as well, such as the lungs and skin. It can be a disabling and painful condition, which can lead to substantial loss of functioning and mobility.

The disease is now diagnosed in about 54 women out of every 100,000, compared to about 36 women of every 100,000 in earlier decades. The incidence for men remains at about 29 per 100,000.

The rate of RA in the overall population increased from 0.85 percent to 0.95 percent. The reason for the increase isn't clear, but environmental factors may play a role in the rise of the joint disease among women, the researchers suggested. "We don't know why," says Hilal Maradit-Kremers, MD, associate professor of epidemiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Researchers studied 38 patients who had a heart attack and were hospitalized for their first heart attack between 1976 and 2001. The risk of death was noted to be 75 percent higher in heart attack patients with RA. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis who had a positive blood test for rheumatoid factor had a particularly high rate of risk of death.
Moreover the study suggests that stopping smoking can reduce RA disease activity.