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Comorbidity of gout and rheumatoid arthritis in a large population database

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Abstract

Coexistence of rheumatoid arthritis and gout is considered to be unusual. The current study was designed as a population-based cross-sectional study, utilizing the medical database of Clalit Health Services, the largest healthcare provider organization in Israel. Data of adult patients who were previously diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis was retrieved. For each patient, five age- and sex-matched control patients were randomly selected. Different parameters including BMI, socioeconomic status, and existence of gout as well as smoking and hypertension were examined for both groups. The study included 11,540 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 56,763 controls. The proportion of gout in the study group was high compared to controls (1.61 vs. 0.92%, P < 0.001). In a multivariate analysis, rheumatoid arthritis was associated with gout (OR = 1.72, 95% CI 1.45–2.05, P = 0.00). The proportion of gout in rheumatoid arthritis patients is not lower than in the general population.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine ‘B’, Zabludowicz Center for Autoimmune Diseases, Sheba Medical Center, 52621, Tel Hashomer, Israel

    Rona Merdler-Rabinowicz, Shmuel Tiosano & Howard Amital

  2. Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Rona Merdler-Rabinowicz, Shmuel Tiosano & Howard Amital

  3. Chief Physician’s Office, Clalit Health Services, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Doron Comaneshter & Arnon D. Cohen

  4. Siaal Research Center for Family Medicine and Primary Care, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel

    Arnon D. Cohen

Authors
  1. Rona Merdler-Rabinowicz
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  2. Shmuel Tiosano
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  3. Doron Comaneshter
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  4. Arnon D. Cohen
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  5. Howard Amital
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Howard Amital.

Ethics declarations

The study was approved by the institutional review board of the Clalit Health Services at the Soroka Medical Center, in Beer Sheva, Israel.

Disclosures

None.

Additional information

Rona Merdler-Rabinowicz and Shmuel Tiosano contributed equally to this work.

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Merdler-Rabinowicz, R., Tiosano, S., Comaneshter, D. et al. Comorbidity of gout and rheumatoid arthritis in a large population database. Clin Rheumatol 36, 657–660 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-016-3477-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-016-3477-5

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