Comorbid Obesity big hurdle for achieving remission among patients with psoriatic arthritis

Key points of the study are:

• Out of 431 patients included in the study, 136, constituting 31.6 %, had obesity.
• Compared to nonobese patients, researchers found female predilection among obese patients. There was worse pain and physical function with impaired life quality. These patients also experience higher tender joint and enthesitis counts.
• Patients with obesity were less likely to be in VLDA, DAPSA remission, and MDA with adjusted odds ratios of .31, .39 and .61, respectively.
• There were similarities between the rates of DAPSA-LDA and patient-reported remission and LDA among obese and nonobese patients.

Study limitations include small sample size, hindered generalizability of the results, lack of evaluation of changes in remission status or casualty, and discrepancies.

Psoriatic arthritis patients with concurrent obesity had lower odds of remission by indices. The study highlights the importance of managing obesity in improving the care of such patients.

Further reading:

Leung YY, Eder L, Orbai AM, Coates LC, de Wit M, Smolen JS, Kiltz U, Palominos P, Canete JD, Scrivo R, Balanescu A, Dernis E, Meisalu S, Soubrier M, Kalyoncu U, Gossec L. Association between obesity and likelihood of remission or low disease activity status in psoriatic arthritis applying index-based and patient-based definitions of remission: a cross-sectional study. RMD Open. 2023 Sep;9(3):e003157. doi: 10.1136/rmdopen-2023-003157. PMID: 37709527; PMCID: PMC10503343.