Obesity places patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) at increased risk for chronic opioid use, analysis of data from a large national database found.
Compared with RA patients of normal weight, the adjusted hazard ratios for incident opioid use were 1.22 (95% CI 1.11-1.34, P<0.001) among those who were overweight and 1.42 (95% CI 1.27-1.58, P<0.001) for those who were obese, reported Joshua F. Baker, MD, of Philadelphia VA Medical Center, and colleagues.