Menopause status and its role in incident Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, rheumatoid arthritis…

Cohort studySeminars in arthritis and rheumatism· Jul 2026

Menopause status and its role in incident Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease severity, and overall mortality in women with RA.

Ryan S Salama, Cassondra A Hulshizer, Cynthia S Crowson … Elena Myasoedova

Menopause & Hormone TherapyCohort studyPrognosisQ1IF 3.5

Early menopause linked to higher risk of severe extra-articular rheumatoid arthritis manifestations

Menopause status and its role in incident Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease severity, and overall mortality in women with RA.

Ryan S Salama … Elena Myasoedova

Seminars in arthritis and rheumatism · Jul 2026

Purpose

We aimed to investigate associations between menopausal characteristics, including age at menopause and cause (natural vs. artificial), with long-term outcomes in women with rheumatoid arthritis (rheumatoid arthritis), incident Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD), rheumatoid arthritis severity, and overall mortality.

Methods

Women with incident rheumatoid arthritis in 1980-2014 who were ≥50 years of age at rheumatoid arthritis incidence were included.

Results

early menopause more than doubled the risk of severe extra-articular rheumatoid arthritis

HR by subgroup · 95% CI

More results

Both early/premature and late menopause were associated with nonsignificant near two-fold increases in ADRD risk.

Menopausal characteristics were not associated with presence of erosions or mortality.

Artificial menopause was associated with fewer cardiovascular events and fewer visits for rheumatoid arthritis remission.

More results

Early/premature menopause was associated with fewer remission visits (OR 0.50; 95% CI 0.29-0.87).

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Conclusion · 1 of 2

Women with early/premature and late menopause had nonsignificant, increased risk of incident ADRD.

Conclusion · 2 of 2

Menopausal characteristics had significant associations with rheumatoid arthritis severity and cardiovascular events, and may be relevant contextual factors in long-term risk assessment for women with rheumatoid arthritis.

Menopause status and its role in incident Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease severity, and overall mortality in women with RA.

Menopause status and its role in incident Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease severity, and overall mortality in women with RA.

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