Blood Pressure Trends in Patients With Seropositive Rheumatoid Arthritis Compared With Controls Without Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Retrospective Cohort Study

OBJECTIVE: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) conveys an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), making it imperative that traditional CVD risk factors are well controlled. This study compared blood pressure (BP) trends over 13 years among patients with seropositive RA and patients without RA who received care within a large health care system in Minnesota. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study compared 774 patients with seropositive RA and 3254 patients without RA who were matched on sex and year of birth (±5 years) and observed between 2005 and 2017. Generalized estimating equation models were used for longitudinal analyses, with adjustment for demographics, body mass index, smoking status, Charlson Comorbidity Index, number of BP measurements, and number of antihypertensive and oral glucocorticoid medications. RESULTS: Patients both with and without RA had a mean age of 55 and were predominately female (78% with RA; 79% without RA). The mean follow‐up was 6.3 (SD 3.4) years for patients with RA and 7.2 (SD 3.3) years for patients without RA. Overall, systolic BP, diastolic BP, and the number of prescribed antihypertensive medications did not differ between groups. Patients with RA were more likely to be current smokers compared with patients without RA (23% vs 11%; P < 0.01) and were less likely to have serum lipid measurements (75% vs 85%; P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: BP was similarly controlled in patients with seropositive RA and patients without RA. However, diastolic BP in patients with RA was trending up in most recent years. Patients with RA were also more likely to smoke compared with controls and were less likely to have serum lipid measurements.