The following is a summary of “Cigarette Smoking Increases the Prevalence of Hip Joint Involvement in Ankylosing Spondylitis: A Real-World Case-Control Study,” published in the July 2023 issue of Rheumatology by Hu et al.
This study aims to examine the relationship between smoking and hip joint involvement in ankylosing spondylitis (AS). According to the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Radiology Hip Index, this case-control study contrasted AS patients with and without hip involvement. A logistic regression analysis, subgroup analysis, and sensitivity analysis were conducted to determine the association between smoking and hip involvement in AS.
About 103 patients with hip involvement (cases) and 89 without hip involvement (controls) participated in this study. In univariate analysis, patients with juvenile-onset AS (JAS), younger age, masculine gender, a history of peripheral arthritis, or cigarette smoking were likelier to experience hip involvement. JAS (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.52, 95% CI 1.26-5.06), male sex (aOR 2.89, 95% CI 1.14-7.33), and cigarette smoking (aOR 7.23, 95% CI 2.40-23.05) were independently associated with hip involvement in AS after adjusting for confounding factors.
In addition, patients with less than 10 pack-years of smoking exposure were 2.2 times more likely to have hip involvement than those without (aOR 2.21, 95% CI 1.09-4.40). This association was confirmed in subgroup analyses of males and subjects with matched propensity scores and survived sensitivity analysis. Smoking is a novel independent risk factor for hip involvement in AS; exposure to less than 10 pack-years may contribute to increased hip involvement in AS, highlighting the importance of smoking cessation in patients with AS, particularly JAS.
Source: jrheum.org/content/50/7/901