A new study conducted by Uppsala University has demonstrated that an elevated body mass index (BMI) increases the risk of five different rheumatic diseases: rheumatism, osteoarthritis, gout, psoriatic arthritis, and inflammatory spondylitis.
The study, published in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatology, also highlighted that BMI was a stronger risk factor for gout and psoriatic arthritis in women compared to men.
Study Insights and Methodology
The study’s findings offer greater insight into the risks associated with rheumatic diseases and suggest that maintaining a lower body weight could serve as a strategy to reduce the risk of such diseases, explained Weronica Ek, Docent and Researcher at Uppsala University’s Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology, and the study’s leader.
The researchers acknowledged that previous studies had linked high BMI to rheumatic diseases, but it was unclear whether high BMI directly caused these diseases or if patients with rheumatic diseases typically had a higher BMI due to other unidentified factors.
To address this issue, the researchers utilized information contained in human genes.
They demonstrated that individuals with a genetic predisposition to high BMI also had an increased risk of developing rheumatic diseases.
Ek said, “Although we have seen this connection in the past, it is difficult to identify the causal relations between BMI and disease.
But when we found that the genes linked to high BMI were also associated with a higher risk of these rheumatic diseases, we were able to conclude that BMI truly does have an impact on the risk of developing rheumatic disease.”
Gender Differences and Non-linear Effects
The researchers also explored potential gender differences and how BMI affects risk among women of childbearing age compared to post-menopausal women.
They discovered that for both gout and psoriatic arthritis, high BMI was a more significant risk factor in women than men.
Furthermore, the effect of BMI on the risk of developing osteoarthritis was lower in post-menopausal women compared to women of childbearing age.
The researchers observed that an increase in BMI among normal-weight individuals resulted in a significantly greater relative increase in the risk of developing gout than an increase in BMI among already overweight and obese individuals.
This suggests that the risk does not increase as significantly for a person who is already overweight, even though the basic risk of developing gout is always greater with a higher BMI.
The researchers found these non-linear effects intriguing from a molecular biological perspective and are interested in studying the underlying mechanisms behind how higher body weight increases the risk of disease.
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The study was published in Arthritis & Rheumatology.
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