Changes in Alcohol Use and Associations With Disease Activity, Health Status, and Mortality in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Objective Better disease activity and quality of life have been observed among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who drink alcohol. This association might be explained by reverse causality. We undertook this study to identify predictors of change in alcohol use and to evaluate independent associations between alcohol use and RA activity and mortality. Methods Participants in Forward, The National Databank for Rheumatic Diseases, were asked about alcohol use (any versus none), and disease activity was collected through the Patient Activity Scale-II (PAS-II) on semiannual surveys. We identified factors associated with changes in alcohol use and determined associations between alcohol use and disease activity and mortality using linear and logistic regression models, Cox proportional hazards models, and marginal structural models. Results A total of 121,280 observations were studied among 16,762 unique participants. Discontinuation and initiation of alcohol were common among drinkers and abstainers (8.2% and 9.2% of observations, respectively). Greater discontinuation and less initiation were observed with greater disease activity, older age, female sex, nonwhite race, obesity, greater comorbidity, low quality of life, low educational level, low income, and work disability. While alcohol users had lower PAS-II (beta = -0.15 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) -0.18, -0.11], P < 0.001) and a lower mortality (odds ratio 0.87 [95% CI 0.76, 0.98], P = 0.03) in traditional models, associations were not seen in marginal structural models. Conclusion Higher disease activity, disability, comorbidity, and poor quality of life contribute to reductions in alcohol use. Active use and changes in use were not associated with disease activity or mortality when adjusting for confounding, suggesting no clear benefit of alcohol consumption in RA.