NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Oct 29 - The risk of developing diabetes is cut in half among rheumatoid arthritis patients who use hydroxychloroquine for treatment, according to research findings reported this week at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Scientific Meeting in San Francisco.
"People with rheumatoid arthritis are at increased risk for diabetes, due to sedentary lifestyle, chronic inflammation, and use of steroid medications that can cause weight gain," Dr. Androniki Bili told Reuters Health prior to her presentation.
"A study published in JAMA in 2007 showed an impressive 77% reduction of new cases of diabetes in rheumatoid arthritis patients who took hydroxychloroquine for more than 4 years," she added.
Because that research was based on patient self-report, she and her associates sought to verify those findings using the electronic health records database maintained at the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania.
The patient cohort comprised 1824 RA patients without diabetes at baseline; 525 had used hydroxychloroquine and 1299 had never used the drug.
During a mean follow-up of 3 years, diabetes was diagnosed in 16 hydroxychloroquine users and 154 never-users (incidence rates 17.2 vs 33.8 per 1000 patient-years), the investigators report in their meeting abstract.
The hazard ratio for incident diabetes with hydroxychloroquine use versus without was 0.47 (p = 0.008) after controlling for demographics, BMI, clinical factors, and medications.
"We should revisit hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, because in addition to its disease-modifying properties, it might prevent the development of diabetes in this high risk group," Dr. Bili stated. "Given the relative safety and low cost of this generic drug, hydroxychloroquine may be useful in preventing diabetes in other high risk groups as well."
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