After decades of sharp declines, the incidence of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is on the rise, at least among white women, a longitudinal study found.
Between 1995 and 2007, the incidence of RA increased by a modest but significant 2.5% per year (95% CI 0.3% to 4.7% per year, P=0.02) among women residing in Olmsted County, Minn., according to Elena Myasoedova, MD, PhD, and colleagues from the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minn.
A similar increase was not observed among men, who had a decreased incidence of 0.5% per year (95% CI −3.6% to 2.7%, P=0.74), the researchers reported in the June Arthritis & Rheumatism.
The incidence and prevalence of RA vary widely across populations, geographic areas, and time periods, probably as a result of an interplay between genes and environment.
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Rheumatology/Arthritis/20334