TY - JOUR T1 - Comprehensive assessment of multimorbidity burden in a population-based cohort of patients with rheumatoid arthritis JF - RMD Open JO - RMD Open DO - 10.1136/rmdopen-2021-002022 VL - 8 IS - 1 SP - e002022 AU - Cynthia S Crowson AU - Tina M Gunderson AU - Hayley J Dykhoff AU - Elena Myasoedova AU - Elizabeth J Atkinson AU - Vanessa L Kronzer AU - Caitrin M Coffey AU - John M Davis III Y1 - 2022/01/01 UR - http://rmdopen.bmj.com/content/8/1/e002022.abstract N2 - Objective To comprehensively assess multimorbidity burden in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in order to unify the multimorbidity definition for RA research and clinical practice.Methods In this population-based study, residents of eight Minnesota counties with prevalent RA on 1 January 2015 were identified. Age, sex and county-matched non-RA comparators were selected from the same population. Diagnostic codes were retrieved for 5 years before 1 January 2015. Using two codes ≥30 days apart, 44 previously defined morbidities and 78 non-overlapping chronic disease categories based on Clinical Classification Software were defined. Prevalence of each morbidity in the RA versus non-RA cohorts was compared using false discovery rate to adjust for multiple comparisons. Morbidities more common in RA than non-RA and those with prevalence ≥5% were retained.Results 1643 patients with RA and 1643 non-RA subjects (72% women; mean age 63.1 years) were studied. Using the 44 morbidities, multimorbidity (defined as 2+ morbidities) was present in 1411 (86%) of RA and 1164 (71%) of non-RA subjects (p<0.001) with 5+ morbidities present in 907 (55%) of RA and 619 (38%) of non-RA (p<0.001). Patients with RA had significantly higher prevalence of 24 of the 44 morbidities compared with non-RA, especially interstitial lung disease, fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis. Among the additional 78 categories, 7 were significantly higher in RA than non-RA, including organic sleep disorders, vitamin D deficiency and foot ulcers.Conclusion Patients with RA have a higher prevalence of multimorbidity compared with non-RA subjects. These results confirm the list of 44 morbidities and add several other morbidities of interest in RA.Data are available upon reasonable request. Mayo Clinic Institutional Review Board (IRB) policy does not allow full access of patient information to be provided to a third party without prior approval from the IRB committee overseeing this study. However, access to the complete de-identified data can be made available following approval. Requests for additional study-related data can be sent to Cynthia S. Crowson at crowson@mayo.edu. ER -