EGMN -- ROME (EGMN) – Alcohol use was linked with a reduced risk for having several forms of arthritis in a case control study with about 1,000 arthritis patients and nearly 6,000 controls. Patients with newly diagnosed arthritis – rheumatoid, psoriatic, or reactive arthritis, spondyloarthritis, or osteoarthritis had a significantly reduced prevalence of alcohol use, compared with a control population of adults who were free of arthritis. In an analysis that controlled for age, gender, body mass index, and smoking, patients with arthritis had a roughly 70% reduced relative rate of being alcohol consumers, suggesting a protective effect from alcohol against a variety of arthritis types, Dr. Diane van der Woude said at the annual European Congress of Rheumatology.
