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Nancy A. Shadick, MD, MPH; Elizabeth W. Karlson, MD; I-Min Lee, MBBS, ScD

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Tanzer raises 2 issues for discussion related to potential confounders in our study examining the association of CRP level with the risk of developing RA.¹ First, as he indicates, smoking is a known risk factor for incident RA. In our cohort, 38% of RA cases were never smokers and 52% were past smokers at the time of diagnosis vs 52% and 37%, respectively, among women who did not develop RA. In our analyses, we adjusted for smoking status; thus, our findings were unlikely to reflect confounding by smoking. Second, regarding statin use, the blood samples in our study were collected between 1993 and 1995, a period when the prevalence of statin use was relatively low. We did not have data on statin use at baseline to adjust for this; however, there was unlikely to be . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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RELATED LETTER

C-Reactive Protein Is Still a Potential Aid in Rheumatoid Arthritis Predictors
Jerome Tanzer
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