Alcohol consumption as a preventive factor for developing rheumatoid arthritis: a dose-response meta-analysis of prospective studies

摘要

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an autoimmune disease, characterised by chronic, destructive, debilitating arthritis that affects approximately 1% of the adult population,is hypothesised to result from the interaction between environmental and genetic factors.Regarding the possible environmental factors, those related to lifestyle are believed to play an important role.5 Alcohol consumption has been identified as a preventive factor, although the findings regarding its effect on RA development have been inconsistent.While the results of several observational studies suggest that moderate alcohol consumption may decrease the risk of RA, ~ no clear-cut mechanism has been identified to explain this inverse relationship. One study that examined the association between alcohol consumption and markers of inflammation in preclinical patients with RA identified a U-shaped association between daily alcohol consumption and IL-6 levels prior to emergence of RA symptoms,9 suggesting the existence of a non-linear, possibly U-shaped or J-shaped, dose-response relationship between alcohol consumption and risk of RA.