In a report that was published earlier this year, researchers from the National Arthritis Data Workgroup stated that an estimated 1.3 million adults in the U.S. are affected by RA. This compares to the estimate of 2.1 million in 1995.

However, the group decided to take a look at more recent data than that used for the Workgroup study. To this end, they recruited 350 patients with RA in Olmstead County, Minnesota that were diagnosed between 1995 and 2005 and then looked at the population as a whole to determine the incidence rate.

Based on this more recent data, Dr. Hilal Maradit-Kremers, associate professor of epidemiology at the Mayo Clinic, and colleagues, found that 54 women out of every 100,000 develop rheumatoid arthritis each year as compared to 36 out of every 100,000 10 years earlier.

The incidence for men remained the same at 29 per 100,000.

“These rates would apply to the entire U.S. population,” Kremers says. “Based on this new data, the estimated number of people with RA in the U.S. is probably higher than 1.2 million.”

It is believed that the increase in the incidence rate is a result of environmental, and possibly hormonal, causes.

Originally posted 2008-11-19 12:00:37. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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