Impact of Gender and Age-at-onset on Clinical and Medical Features of Rheumatoid Arthritis in Western Algerian Population

Background: This study aimed to demonstrate the gender and age-at-onset differences in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the western Algerian population and their impacts on patients' clinical features and medical management. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was carried out at the Internal Medicine and Functional Rehabilitation Departments (University Hospital of Sidi-bel-Abbes region) based on medical records of over 306 RA patients diagnosed between 2016 and 2019 according to ACR 1987 criteria. Late-onset RA (LORA) was defined as disease onset at 51 years of age or older. All data were processed and analyzed via SPSS 22.0. Results: We enrolled 306 rheumatoid arthritis patients (85% women) with a mean age-at-onset of 52.47 ± 12.14. Algerian RA women were more at risk of developing type 2 diabetes (P = 0.035), hypertension (P = 0.003), and thyroid disorders (P = 0.05). We did not find any significant relationship between clinical features, laboratory data, and gender. The LORA group comprised 60.5% of our study population with a higher number of comorbidities such as hypertension (P < 0.001), osteoporosis (P = 0.007), and scleroderma (P = 0.014). Nonetheless, we found evidence of an association between positive anti-CCP, RF rate, and age-at-onset (P = 0.001 and P < 0.001, respectively). Conclusions: Algerian RA women with LORA presented a higher prevalence of comorbidities, while Young-onset RA (YORA) was associated with a high rate of RF.