Comparisons of patients and controls with and without a previous non-vertebral fracture (mean (SD) for continuous variables, % for counts)
| Patients with RA | Controls | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Any fracture (53) | No fracture (196) | p Value | Any fracture (50) | No fracture (199) | p Value | |
| For abbreviations, see table 1. | ||||||
| *For controls, disease duration = number of years since dummy time of disease onset, corresponding with the time of disease onset of the matched patient with RA. | ||||||
| p value, t tests for continuous and χ2 tests for dichotomous variables. | ||||||
| Demographic variables | ||||||
| Age (years) | 64.5 (6.2) | 62.6 (6.8) | 0.06 | 65.1 (6.4) | 63.0 (6.7) | 0.04 |
| Height | 163.0 (6.7) | 164.0 (5.8) | 0.28 | 165.1 (6.1) | 163.4 (5.7) | 0.002 |
| Weight | 67.7 (16.5) | 65.6 (11.2) | 0.09 | 71.9 (11.2) | 69.0 (12.0) | 0.06 |
| BMI (kg/m2) | 25.4 (5.8) | 24.2 (3.9) | 0.08 | 26.4 (4.4) | 25.8 (4.1) | 0.13 |
| Age at menopause (years) | 47.6 (8.0) | 48.8 (4.8) | 0.16 | 49.8 (5.3) | 49.4 (4.8) | 0.38 |
| Current smoker | 35.8 | 32.3 | 0.65 | 22.0 | 31.6 | 0.20 |
| Clinical variables | ||||||
| Disease duration* | 20.1 (10.8) | 15.6 (10.0) | 0.004 | 20.7 (11.2) | 15.6 (10.0) | 0.002 |
| Rheumatoid factor positive | 62.0 | 49.2 | 0.12 | |||
| MHAQ | 1.8 (0.6) | 1.7 (0.5) | 0.19 | 1.1 (0.2) | 1.1 (0.3) | 0.60 |
| DAS | 4.79 (1.33) | 4.68 (1.22) | 0.57 | |||
| Any deformed joint | 77.4 | 59.2 | 0.02 | |||
| Fracture before RA diagnosis | 13.2 | 9.2 | 0.38 | 14.0 | 8.6 | 0.30 |
| Long term CS use (⩾12 months) | 64.2 | 50.0 | 0.07 | 0.0 | 3.0 | 0.23 |
| Current oestrogen use | 45.1 | 37.7 | 0.37 | 18.0 | 32.1 | 0.05 |
| Current bisphosphonate use | 21.6 | 9.7 | 0.03 | 0 | 1.5 | 0.40 |
| BMD variables | ||||||
| BMD femoral neck (g/cm2) | 0.76 (0.20) | 0.82 (0.13) | 0.02 | 0.88 (0.11) | 0.84 (0.13) | 0.03 |
| BMD total hip (g/cm2) | 0.78 (0.19) | 0.85 (0.14) | 0.01 | 0.87 (0.13) | 0.92 (0.13) | 0.03 |
| BMD L2–4 (g/cm2) | 1.00 (0.24) | 1.07 (0.19) | 0.03 | 1.05 (0.19) | 1.12 (0.19) | 0.03 |
| Z score femoral neck | −0.63 (1.00) | −0.17 (1.35) | 0.01 | −0.19 (0.87) | 0.32 (0.98) | 0.03 |
| Z score total hip | −0.82 (1.24) | −0.31 (1.05) | 0.01 | −0.10 (0.97) | 0.25 (0.98) | 0.03 |
| Z score of the spine | −0.11 (1.90) | 0.36 (1.44) | 0.05 | 0.16 (1.48) | 0.68 (1.53) | 0.03 |