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Smoking, Smoking Cessation, and Disease Activity in a Large Cohort of Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis
The Journal of Rheumatology, 03/30/2012
Fisher MC et al. – In the short term, smoking cessation did not appear to influence change in disease activity over time.
Methods- Patients enrolled in the Consortium of Rheumatology Researchers of North America registry (CORRONA) were stratified into never, former, and current smokers at enrollment.
- Current smokers were further stratified into continued and ceased smoking groups during their followup in the registry.
- The primary outcome was change in Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI) at last visit in a multivariate, random–effects regression model accounting for multiple timepoints.
- At last visit, there was no significant change in CDAI between ceased smokers and continued smokers (coefficient –0.00091, SE 0.0033, p = 0.7834).
- The study did confirm prior cross–sectional studies that current smokers have worse disease activity than former or never smokers.
