Tang Lin, Zhang Lei, Ding Zhonghai, Xu Wenying, Liu Yu, Yu Zhenghong
Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Jinling Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210002, China.
School of Early-Childhood Education, Nanjing XiaoZhuang University, Nanjing, 210002, China.
BMC Rheumatol. 2025 May 26;9(1):61. doi: 10.1186/s41927-025-00513-y.
Patients infected with Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) often present with rheumatic symptoms, but its link to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) remains unclear. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to investigate whether HCV infection is related to the risk for RA in adults.
We analyzed data from the 2017-2020 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). HCV infection and RA status were determined through questionnaires. Covariates included gender, age, race, marital status, body mass index (BMI), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and diabetes status. Multivariate logistic regression and subgroup analyses were used to assess the relationship between HCV infection and RA risk.
In this population-based study involving 5,825 participants aged 18-80 years (including 485 RA patients), we observed a significantly higher prevalence of HCV infection in the RA group compared with non-RA controls. After adjusting for covariates, multivariate logistic regression showed that HCV infection was associated with an increased risk of RA (OR = 1.93; 95%CI = 1.07-3.50, p < 0.05).
This study demonstrates that HCV infection is associated with the risk of RA in adults, underscoring the potential value of HCV screening in RA patients for improved disease management. However, causal interpretation is limited by the cross-sectional design and reliance on self-reported data.
丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）感染患者常出现风湿症状，但其与类风湿关节炎（RA）的关联仍不明确。这项横断面研究的目的是调查HCV感染是否与成年人患RA的风险相关。
我们分析了2017 - 2020年国家健康与营养检查调查（NHANES）的数据。通过问卷确定HCV感染和RA状态。协变量包括性别、年龄、种族、婚姻状况、体重指数（BMI）、高敏C反应蛋白（hs-CRP）和糖尿病状态。采用多因素逻辑回归和亚组分析来评估HCV感染与RA风险之间的关系。
在这项基于人群的研究中，纳入了5825名年龄在18 - 80岁的参与者（包括485名RA患者），我们观察到RA组中HCV感染的患病率显著高于非RA对照组。在对协变量进行调整后，多因素逻辑回归显示HCV感染与RA风险增加相关（OR = 1.93；95%CI = 1.07 - 3.50，p < 0.05）。
本研究表明HCV感染与成年人患RA的风险相关，强调了在RA患者中进行HCV筛查对改善疾病管理的潜在价值。然而，由于横断面设计和对自我报告数据的依赖，因果解释受到限制。
