Serious childhood infections could be sign of later arthritis
November 9, 2008 by Marijke Durning, RN
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
According to findings of a study published in a recent issue of the journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, children who have severe infections during their first year of life may be at a higher risk of developing arthritis.
The study involved over 3,500 people as researchers followed them to see what people with arthritis may have in common. Some commonalities that may have been thought to contribute to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were being born prematurely and being small or underweight at birth. However, these didn’t seem to have a link to developing RA. What did seem to link to RA was being large at birth and having more than 3 brothers and/or sisters. Most striking was the finding that if a child had a serious infection (respiratory, stomach, intestinal, or skin and soft tissue infections), their risk of developing RA was higher.
One theory for this finding is that the infection early in life could be a trigger for arthritis later on.
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Tags: chronic pain blog, pain blog, arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, infection, trigger for arthritis
Growing up I had tonsillitis and strep throat six times in one year … I wonder if that’s infection enough. I’m a few points shy of being officially DX’d with RA, but would LOVE to know where it all began.