Anaemia and anthropometric indices of obesity in early rheumatoid arthritis patients attending the rheumatology clinic at Colombo South Teaching Hospital - Necessity to screen for anemia early

Abstract

Introduction: The study's objective was to determine selected nutritional and anthropometric parameters of patients with early Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). Methods: The socio-demographic characteristics, and haemoglobin (Hb), anthropometric parameters, and seven site skin fold thicknesses of early RA patients (n=100) were compared with healthy controls (n=100) from the year 2018-2020. Body densities (BD) and body fat percentages (BF%) were calculated according to Jackson & Pollock anthropometric equations. The data were analyzed by SPSS-version-20, considering p<0.05 as statistically significant. Results: The mean age of the participants was 48.6±7.6 years, and the majority were female (84%). Female RA patients had significantly higher BMI (26.9±4.5 kg/m2 ) (p=0.04), Waist Circumference (WC) [97.7±11.9 cm] (p<0.001), and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) [0.98±0.10] values (p<0.001) compared to female controls (BMI-25.7±3.5 kg/m2, WC-91.0±9.5 cm, and WHR-0.93±0.06). Female patients had a significantly lower BD (1.030±0.010 g/ml) (p<0.001) and significantly higher BF% (26.3±5.1) (p<0.01) than controls. Abdominal obesity was evident among 95.0% of all RA patients and 92.0% of controls. Hb levels of male (12.5±1.2 g/dl) and female RA patients (11.9±1.1 g/dl) were significantly lower compared to healthy males (14.5±1.3 g/dl) and females (14.6±1.9 g/dl) (p<0.001). Anaemia was observed among 50% of total early RA patients and 5% of controls. Conclusion: A significant proportion of early RA patients was anaemic and had anthropometric impairment compared to healthy controls. Thus, the onset of nutritional impairment among RA patients should be evaluated even at the early stages of RA.
Keywords: Early rheumatoid arthritis, Nutritional status, Anemia, Obesity, Anthropometry