A Cross-Sectional Study of Different Rheumatic Diseases and their Respective Comorbidities at a Tertiary Care Hospital in India

Background: Rheumatic diseases have many outcomes, but less understood are many manifestations of additional health conditions that are associated with these diseases called co-morbidities. The more co-morbid illnesses one has, the greater the interference with medical management of rheumatic diseases. It is important to recognize such illnesses and to account for them in the care of the individual patient. There are few studies pertaining to different co-morbidities associated with rheumatic conditions. Therefore, this study was carried out to evaluate different rheumatic diseases and their frequency, associated co-morbid conditions and their variation based on age and body mass index (BMI). Methods: This cross sectional study was designed to survey 1000 consecutive patients who were diagnosed to have rheumatic diseases for co-morbidities at our institution. Patients of either gender with age >= 18 years were included. Data was collected regarding demographics detail, diagnosed disease and co-morbid condition. Analysis was done by IBM SPSS version 17.0 and R version 3.4, the association of rheumatic disease and co-morbidity with age and BMI was analyzed using Chi-square test. Results: We found that that rheumatic disease and co-morbidity increased significantly with age and body mass index (BMI) (P < 0.005). A substantial proportion of patients with rheumatic diseases (45% ) were foud to have co-morbidities. The most common amongst them are hypertension, hypothyroidism and diabetes mellitus in descending order of frequency. Conclusion: Co-morbidities which are amenable to therapeutic measures are common in individuals with rheumatic diseases. Early detection of such co-morbid condition is helpful should be an integral part of rheumatology patient care.