Rheumatoid arthritis is associated with reduced adiposity but not with unfavorable major cardiovascular risk factor profiles and enhanced carotid atherosclerosis in black Africans from a developing population: a cross-sectional study

Table 6 Relationships of disease activity and severity with systemic inflammation in moderately or highly active RA

	C-reactive protein^a				Interleukin-6^a
Disease activity variable	Age and sex adjusted model		Multivariable adjusted model^b		Age and sex adjusted model		Multivariable adjusted model^b
	Partial R	P	Partial R	P	Partial R	P	Partial R	P
Swollen joints^a	0.025	0.9	0.113	0.4	-0.260	0.07	-0.246	0.1
Tender joints^a	0.028	0.8	0.014	0.9	-0.131	0.4	-0.120	0.4
Doctor disease activity^a	0.100	0.5	0.084	0.6	0.212	0.2	0.232	0.1
Patient disease activity	-0.092	0.5	-0.066	0.7	0.222	0.1	0.225	0.2
CDAI^a	0.066	0.6	0.111	0.5	0.125	0.4	0.147	0.3
Deformed joints^a	0.041	0.8	0.028	0.8	0.012	0.9	-0.050	0.7

Sixty-one patients had moderate or high disease activity (CDAI > 10). ^aNon-normally distributed variables that were logarithmically transformed; ^badditionally adjusted for potential confounders of body mass index, waist:height ratio and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (see Table 3). CDAI, Clinical Disease Activity Index.

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