A study conducted by researchers at the ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR-NIN) in Hyderabad has established a strong association between diet quality and the incidence of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) in adults. The study involved 615 participants aged 18 to 55, including 301 newly diagnosed RA patients and 314 healthy individuals.
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Rheumatoid Arthritis is an autoimmune disorder where the immune system attacks healthy tissues, particularly affecting the joints. While genetic and environmental factors play a role in its development, this study highlights the dietary patterns in the Indian population, which had not been extensively studied before.
Researchers used a validated 131-item food frequency questionnaire to assess participants’ food habits, focusing on dietary inflammatory potential, diversity, and micronutrient adequacy. They employed the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) to measure inflammatory potential, the Dietary Diversity Score (DDS) for dietary diversity, and the Mean Probability of Adequacy (MPA) to evaluate micronutrient adequacy.
The results showed that participants with RA had a significantly higher median DII score of 2.18 compared to 0.37 among the healthy controls, indicating more inflammatory potential in their diets. Additionally, dietary diversity was notably lower in the RA group, with only 50.2% achieving a high diversity score versus 74.2% of the healthy participants. The median MPA for RA patients was 18.9%, significantly lower than the 32.9% observed in the control group.
The analysis revealed that each one-unit increase in the DII was associated with a 17% higher risk of developing RA after controlling for age, sex, and body mass index. Conversely, every one-unit increase in dietary diversity correlated with a 27% decrease in RA odds, and a 10% rise in micronutrient adequacy corresponded to a 12% reduced likelihood of the disease.
Devraj J. Parasannanavar, the study supervisor, emphasized the importance of overall dietary quality over individual nutrients in understanding chronic inflammatory conditions. ICMR-NIN Director Bharati Kulkarni called for long-term intervention studies to explore whether dietary improvements could prevent or modify RA. The study underscores a significant association warranting further research, although it does not establish a direct causal relationship. The findings have been published in the journal Nutrients.