The age of death of the parents of patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a preliminary study.

The hypothesis was tested that the shortened life expectancy of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is, partially at least, due to a familial factor which independently shortens life expectancy, whether the person has RA or not. We therefore compared the ages of death of the parents of patients with RA with the ages of the death of the parents of a control group. The parents of the patients with RA had a mean age of death of 64.76; 18.23 years versus 68.29; 18.24 years for the parents of the control group (p = 0.006). This finding is compatible with the hypothesis: whether genetic or environmental factors are involved is unknown.