The effect of smoking on disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis – our experience

The aim of this study was to investigate the association of smoking with disease activity, seropositivity, age and gender in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. We included 89 rheumatoid arthritis patients. All patients fulfilled the 2010 American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism rheumatoid arthritis classification criteria. Activity of the disease was measured by Disease Activity Score 28-joint count C-reactive protein (DAS28CRP). The subjects were stratified into smoking and non-smoking groups and cross-sectionally analyzed. There were 24 (27%) smokers and 65 (73%) nonsmokers. The mean age of patients was 57.1±8.8 years. The mean DAS28CRP was 5.81 in the smoking group and 5.57 in the non-smoking group, without statistically significant difference between the two groups (p=0.148). Similarly, smokers did not differ significantly from non-smokers according to age (p=0.443), gender (p=0.274), rheumatoid factor positivity (p=0.231), anti-citrullinated protein antibody positivity (p=0.754) or seropositivity (p=0.163). In this study, we found no association between smoking status and disease activity, seropositivity, age or gender in rheumatoid arthritis patients. Furthermore, disease activity was not related to age, gender or seropositivity. Additional studies on the effects of smoking on rheumatoid arthritis activity are needed.