Most people living longer except rheumatoid arthritis sufferers

New research by the Mayo Clinic has found that while most people are living longer the same is not true for sufferers from rheumatoid arthritis.

The study has found that though the death rates decreased for both men and women from 1965 to 2000, people with rheumatoid arthritis have not experienced the same benefits of that improved survival.

Dr. Sherine E. Gabriel, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota says they found that both women and men who were diagnosed with the condition from 1965 to 2000, died at a percentage of 2.4 and 2.5 percent, while during the same time period, death rates decreased for both men and women who did not have rheumatoid arthritis.

The study authors say there was a worsening of the relative mortality in more recent years, and a widening of the mortality gap between RA patients and the general population throughout time.

They believe this suggests that the radical changes in therapies for rheumatoid arthritis in the last 4 to 5 decades have not had a major impact on mortality and life expectancy for RA patients has not improved.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, autoimmune inflammatory disease that takes a progressive toll on the heart, kidney and liver as well as the joints.

Dr. Gabriel says as cardiovascular deaths make up at least half of the deaths in subjects with RA, it is possible that the cardiovascular interventions that improved life expectancy in the general population may not have had the same beneficial effects in people with RA.

The study raises concerns about current intervention strategies for the disease and Dr. Gabriel says there is an urgent need for research aimed at fully understanding this alarming trend and finding solutions that will close the mortality gap for people with RA.

According to the Arthritis Foundation, about 1% of the U.S. population suffer from rheumatoid arthritis.

The research is published in the November 2007 issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism.