Arthritis prevalence and associations in American Indian and Alaska native people

Abstract

Objective. To investigate the prevalence of arthritis and associations with arthritis in American Indian and Alaska Native populations. Methods. Data on self-reported, doctor-diagnosed arthritis from the baseline visit of 9,968 American Indian and Alaska Native adults from Alaska and the Southwest US were included. The prevalence of arthritis and univariate and multivariate associations between arthritis and demographic characteristics, health-related factors, and treatment are described. Results. The prevalence of self-reported arthritis increased with age. The age-sex adjusted prevalence was high in Alaska (26.1%) and low in the Southwest US (16.5%) as compared with the US population (21.5%). In both centers, arthritis was associated with age, lack of employment, chronic medical conditions, and poorer self-reported overall health. Arthritis was associated with female sex in Alaska only, whereas education, marital status, and urban residency were associated with arthritis in the Southwest US. In both centers, self-reported physical health measured by the Short Form 12 Health Survey was lower in people with arthritis, and mental health was not associated with arthritis. More frequent use of antiinflammatory medications was reported with arthritis in both centers, but increased use of traditional medicine and healers were associated with arthritis only in Alaska. Conclusion. Compared with US rates, the prevalence of self-reported arthritis was higher among Alaska Native people and lower in a Southwest American Indian population. Some factors associated with arthritis differ between the 2 populations.

Depression prevalence and associated factors among Alaska Native people: The Alaska education and research toward health (EARTH) study

“…Gender did not play a role in the relationship between depression, total number of chronic physical conditions, and poorer health in our study. This is consistent with many other investigations (Bruce, 2008; Chun et al, 2008; Ferucci et al, 2008; Freeman et al, 2009; Jackson, 1998; Lippi et al, 2009; Noel et al, 2004; Putman-Casdorph and McCrone, 2009; Van Lieshout et al, 2009). Depression may affect health habits such as diet which in turn increase risk of developing illnesses (Ohayon, 2007; Pedersen and von Soest, 2009).…”

“…Responses to the SF-12 item assessing general health were grouped into two categories, those reporting “poor” or “fair” health versus those reporting “good”, “very good”, or “excellent” health. Number of hours per week of vigorous activity (6.0 metabolic equivalents or higher) were used to classify participants into three categories (none, 0 to 1.9 hours, 2 or more hours) (Ferucci et al, 2008). Participants were also classified into three mutually exclusive categories of tobacco use based upon smoking and use of smokeless tobacco: never smoked 100 cigarettes and never used smokeless tobacco at least 20 times, former smoker or smokeless tobacco user, and current smoker or smokeless tobacco user.…”

N‐Linked Glycans in the Variable Domain of IgG Anti–Citrullinated Protein Antibodies Predict the Development of Rheumatoid Arthritis

“…Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease. Approximately 1% of the global population is affected, but higher prevalence rates have been observed in certain defined populations, such as Indigenous North Americans . Indigenous North Americans develop RA at a younger age, experience higher disease burden, have a remarkably high prevalence of the major genetic risk factor for RA (HLA class II shared epitope [SE] alleles) , and develop RA that is primarily seropositive for RA‐associated autoantibodies, particularly anti–citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPAs) .…”

Non-HLA genes modulate the risk of rheumatoid arthritis associated with HLA-DRB1 in a susceptible North American Native population

“…1 However, several North American Native (NAN) populations have substantially higher prevalence rates, estimated as high as 5.3% in the Pima of Arizona and 2.4% in the Tlingit of Alaska. [2][3][4] The shared epitope (SE) hypothesis postulates that RA predisposing alleles of the HLA-DRB1 locus encode for a positively charged QK(R)RAA sequence in position 70-74 in the third hypervariable region of the molecule. 5 In most populations, the SE sequence is found in HLA-DRB1*04 alleles.…”