NEW YORK, Feb 22 (Reuters Health) -- Life expectancy for Americans has
gone up over the past four decades, but a recent study suggests that people with
rheumatoid arthritis are not sharing in this positive trend. Researchers at the
Mayo Clinic in Minnesota report that life expectancy for this group has not
improved at all.
"Patients with rheumatoid arthritis may be functioning better than in the
past," said study leader Dr. Sherine Gabriel in a statement. "But they are not
living longer. We need to better understand why that is."
Gabriel and colleagues looked at the medical records of all patients
living in Olmsted County (where the Mayo Clinic is located) who had rheumatoid
arthritis (RA). Three groups were compared: those who had RA and were at least
35 years old in 1965, 1975, or 1985. The researchers also looked at new cases of
RA between 1955 and 1985.
A total of 425 new cases of RA were diagnosed between 1955 and 1985, of
whom 26.6% were men and 73.4% women. Average age at diagnosis was 60.2 years. In
addition to these new cases, there were 163 existing cases in 1965, 235 in 1975,
and 272 in 1985.
When the researchers compared the survival of patients with RA to that of
people from the community without RA, patients with RA had significantly worse
survival in all three groups. The survival rate among those newly diagnosed with
RA during the study period were also worse.
"We found that the risk of mortality in RA is roughly 38% greater than in
the general population," the team note. "This risk was more pronounced in women
with RA, who had a 55% increased risk, compared to women in the general
population."
For example, write Gabriel and colleagues, the life expectancy for an
average 50 year old woman in Minnesota is 34 years, while that for a 50 year old
women with RA is four years less at 30 years. For men, the differences were
less: an average 50 year old could expect to live 27 years, while a man with RA
could expect 26 additional years of life.
The researchers also note that while life expectancy in Olmsted County has
improved over the past decades, life expectancy for people with RA has not, and
in fact seems to have got worse in the more recent decades.
"People with RA have not enjoyed the survival benefits that would be
expected for people of the same age and sex from the same community over the
past 3 decades," the researchers conclude in their report, published in a recent
issue of the Journal of Rheumatology.
Gabriel and colleagues note that the population of Olmsted County is 96%
white, so their findings cannot be applied to non-white populations. They also
note that the study findings back up the results of previous studies from
various countries, including the UK, France and Finland.
