Introduction: Rheumatoid arthritis (Ra) and diabetes are often associated with chronic multimorbidity and share the high risk of development of major cardiovascular events (Mace). This study aimed to identify and analyse patients with only Ra, Ra + diabetes, and only diabetes, in terms of comorbidities and new occurrence of Cv events, from the perspective of the Italian national health service (Inhs).
Methods: Starting from the Fondazione ricerca e salute (ReS)'s database, through the record linkage of administrative healthcare data, cohorts with only Ra, Ra + diabetes and only diabetes have been selected, characterized (age and sex), and analysed by comorbidity (depression, dyslipidemia, hypertension, hemorrhagic stroke and ischemic stroke/transient ischemic attack - Tia, coronary artery disease - Cad, heart failure - Hf, chronic liver disease, periphery artery disease - Pad, chronic kidney disease, asthma/chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - Copd, neoplasia) and by new Cv events (Hf, Cad and ischemic stroke/Tia) within two follow-up years (Kaplan-Meier curves). A logistic regression model defined contribution and type of association of some variables on new Cv events.
Results: In 2018, from 5.375.531 Inhs beneficiaries in the ReS database, 13.698 (0.25%) were affected by only Ra, 1728 (0.03%) by Ra + diabetes, 347,659 (6.8%) by only diabetes. The only Ra cohort was composed by more females, younger and with less comorbidities patients. Proportions of 79.3%, 70.8% and 38.5% of patients with Ra + diabetes, only diabetes and only Ra were affected by 2 to ≥4 comorbidities: among patients with Ra + diabetes, comorbidities showed the highest frequencies, mainly hypertension, dyslipidemia and asthma/Copd. Within two follow-up years, about 8% of patients with diabetes with/without Ra developed a new Cv event (vs 3% with only Ra). The presence of Ra/diabetes or Ra + diabetes, male sex, older age and comorbidities of interest resulted significantly (p<0.01) associated with a higher Cv risk.
Conclusions: Comorbidities and the co-presence of diabetes in patients with Ra determine a complicated framework with high risk of Cv events. It is worthy include more complex patients in clinical trials, in order to generate evidence useful for even more multidisciplinary medical teams.