RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Common vaccinations among adults do not increase the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis: results from the Swedish EIRA study
JF Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases
JO Ann Rheum Dis
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and European League Against Rheumatism
SP 1831
OP 1833
DO 10.1136/ard.2010.129908
VO 69
IS 10
A1 Bengtsson, Camilla
A1 Kapetanovic, Meliha C
A1 Källberg, Henrik
A1 Sverdrup, Berit
A1 Nordmark, Birgitta
A1 Klareskog, Lars
A1 Alfredsson, Lars
A1 EIRA Study Group
YR 2010
UL http://ard.bmj.com/content/69/10/1831.abstract
AB Objective To investigate the association between vaccinations in adults and the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods Data from the Swedish population-based Epidemiological Investigation of RA case-control study encompassing 1998 incident cases of RA aged 18–70 years and 2252 randomly selected controls matched for age, sex and residency were analysed. Those vaccinated within 5 years before disease onset were compared with those not vaccinated by calculating OR with 95% CI. Results Vaccinations neither increased the risk of RA overall (OR 1.0, 95% CI 0.9 to 1.1) nor the risk of two major subgroups of RA (antibodies to citrullinated peptide-positive (ACPA-positive) and ACPA-negative disease). Furthermore, vaccinations did not increase the risk of RA in smokers or carriers of HLA-DRB1 shared epitope alleles, two groups with established risk factors for RA. Conclusions In this case-control study of incident cases of newly diagnosed RA, no increased risk of RA following immunisation was observed for vaccinations overall or for any specific vaccination. This indicates that immunological provocation of adults with commonly used vaccines in their present form carries no risk of RA. These findings should be implemented among public healthcare providers in order to encourage vaccinations according to recommended national vaccination schedules.