Women who do not have children appear to develop arthritis, including psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), more than 5 years earlier than women who have given birth. This according to a study conducted by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
There have been prior studies which have shown that pregnancy may provide a protective factor against the development of RA. I have posted in the past about the apparent protection from RA provided by breastfeeding.
However, this is the first analysis to quantify the effect of pregnancy and child bearing on the development of chronic arthritic conditions in premenopausal women. In the study, the average age at time of diagnosis of chronic arthritis for childless women was 26 years, compared with 31.2 years for women who had children.
This study included data from 557 women who were 18-45 years old and was obtained from the Norwegian Disease Modifying Antirheumatic Drug (NOR-DMARD) study. All of the women had been diagnosed with chronic arthritis before the age of 45 years. Information about childbearing status was confirmed by linking the NOR-DMARD patient data with the Medical Birth Registry of Norway (MBRN). The analyses were adjusted for smoking, age and length of education at the time of this study.
Of the study’s 557 participants, 394 had given birth and 163 had not. The non-child bearing women were found to have a significantly higher education level, but smoking habits were not statistically different between the groups. Even adjusted for smoking, age and educational level the non-child bearing women were diagnosed at a significantly earlier age.
According to study lead Dr Marianne Wallenius, of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway: “Arthritic conditions tend to occur more commonly in women, particularly those of childbearing age. Some symptoms of RA, for example, can improve during pregnancy, but our study indicates that the processes of pregnancy and childbearing could delay the onset of arthritic conditions. Continued examination of the complex interactions between the female reproductive processes and the epidemiology of RA could yield further interesting insights.”
The results of the study were presented June 11 at EULAR 2009, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism in Copenhagen, Denmark.
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Originally posted 2009-12-14 06:00:27. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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