Vitamin D Status in Women With Rheumatoid Arthritis

Abstract

Goal. To assess the status of vitamin D in women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and establish its associations with comorbidity, disease activity and body composition components.

Materials and methods. The study included 86 women with RA, with an average age of 58.1±8.5 years. Questionnaires, densitometric and laboratory examinations were conducted. The relationship of vitamin D levels with clinical and anamnestic, laboratory data and densitometry results was analyzed. The analysis was performed using the Mann-Whitney U–test or the Kraskel–Wallis test, The χ2 method and Spearman correlation analysis using the Statistica for Windows 10.0 package (StatSoft Inc., USA).

Results. The vitamin D level was 22.4 [17.8; 27.3] ng/ml, deficiency was detected in 33%, and insufficiency in 46% of women with RA. Only 41% of patients with low levels of 25 (OH)D additionally took colecalciferol, while only 9% took a sufficient dose. Level 25 (HE)D is significantly lower in RA patients with sarcopenia, obesity, high DAS28 activity, and at the same time, no differences were found in individuals who did not receive additional vitamin D preparations, depending on age, fertility, bone mineral density, comorbidity index, duration of RA, erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein, and the nature of the therapy.

Conclusion. 79% of patients with RA had low vitamin D levels, while less than 1/2 of them received additional colecalciferol. Low vitamin D levels were associated with high disease activity, sarcopenia, and obesity.