Physical activity, genetic predisposition and the risk of rheumatoid arthritis: a prospective cohort study.
Moderate physical activity is associated with a lower risk of rheumatoid arthritis.
Physical activity, genetic predisposition and the risk of rheumatoid arthritis: a prospective cohort study.
Physical activities have consistently been associated with rheumatoid arthritis risk.
To investigate the association between physical activity and risk of rheumatoid arthritis, a multivariable Cox regression was performed using data from 351,857 participants in UK Biobank cohort.
Moderate physical activity is associated with a 23% lower hazard of rheumatoid arthritis.
Separated by intensity of physical activity, only vigorous activity was associated with reduced risk of rheumatoid arthritis.
A significant interaction was observed between physical activity and polygenic risk score for rheumatoid arthritis, indicating stronger association in those with low or medium genetic predisposition to rheumatoid arthritis.
Furthermore, BMI and c-reactive protein was found to mediate 33.73% and 32.89% of the associations between physical activity and rheumatoid arthritis, while high-density lipoprotein (high-density lipoprotein) mediated 15.61% of the association.
We observed an inverse association between physical activity and risk of rheumatoid arthritis in UK biobank, which was stronger in those with low or medium polygenic risk score.
BMI, c-reactive protein and high-density lipoprotein may be key intermediates in the association, suggesting them as potential monitoring biomarker for physical activity intervention to prevent rheumatoid arthritis.