According to a study published in a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal, PLoS One, the obesity, DMARDs, and glucocorticoids are the factors associated with incident diabetes risk among the patients suffered from rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Participants were selected from a multi-center cohort study, Corrona. Five mutually exclusive DMARD groups were evaluated to find the risk correlated with the disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) exposure. The risk linked with glucocorticoid usage and body mass index (BMI, <25, 25–30, >30 kg/m²) were also evaluated. Adjudication and Cox regression models were used to validate the incident cases of diabetes and risk of incident diabetes, respectively.

A total of 21,775 DMARD treatment regimens were identified. Oral glucocorticoids were used by 30% of the participants. The disease duration noticed was of 10 years. In the medication exposure periods, eighty-four incident cases of diabetes were validated. As compared to the administered with non-biologic DMARDs other than Hydroxychloroquine and Methotrexate, patients obtained TNF inhibitors showed significantly reduced hazard ratio for diabetes. Methotrexate, Hydroxychloroquine or other biologic DMARDs presented numerically lessened risk as compared to the same group. An HR of 2.33 of incident diabetes was seen among patients obtained ≥7.5 mg of glucocorticoids than the patients obtained no oral glucocorticoids. Participants with >30 BMI exhibited an HR of 6.27 as compared to patients with ≤25 BMI. Obesity, DMARDs, and glucocorticoids affected diabetes risk among RA patients. Supervision of diabetes incidence should be an essential part of the RA treatment.