WEDNESDAY, Jan. 10, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Certain hormonal and reproductive factors are associated with an increased risk for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) among women, according to a study published online Jan. 9 in RMD Open.

Ling-Qiong Jiang, from the Anhui Medical University School of Public Health in Hefei, China, and colleagues collected data on hormonal and reproductive factors in women from a prospective cohort of 223,526 U.K. Biobank participants to examine the association with RA risk.

The researchers identified 3,313 women with RA during a median follow-up of 12.39 years. Compared with menarche at 13 years, menarche at >14 years was associated with increased RA risk (hazard ratio [HR], 1.13). For women with menopause at younger than 45 years, the multiple adjusted HR for RA was 1.46. The risk for RA was increased with reproductive years <33 (HR, 1.39). Women with at least four versus two children had a higher risk for RA (HR, 1.18). The risk for RA was higher among those with a hysterectomy or oophorectomy versus those without (HRs, 1.40 and 1.21, respectively). Hormone replacement therapy use and duration were both associated with an increased risk for RA (HRs, 1.46 and 1.02, respectively).

“The findings of this study are significant and form a basis on which novel and target-specific intervention measures to curb the risk of RA in women may be developed,” the authors write.

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