These study results affirm the presence of sarcopenia in rheumatoid arthritis patients which also found to decrease with the use of bDMARDS and increase with long disease duration, joint damage, age and nutritional status.

Sarcopenia is described by the muscle strength and mass loss, following falls and adverse health issues. The study intended to evaluate sarcopenia prevalence among rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and assess factors correlated with sarcopenia.

A  cross-sectional analysis with 388 consecutive RA women was conducted. The assessment of bone fractures and falls maintained above the previous year was done. Logistic regression analyses were used to assess sarcopenia association with RA characteristics, falls, and bone fractures.

The  37.1% prevalence was noticed for sarcopenia with 49.0% of low muscle mass. The RA patients with sarcopenia presented high rates of fractures, low bone mineral density and falls. The independent factors noticed to be related with sarcopenia were Steinbrocker’s stage, use of biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs),  the high Mini-Nutritional Assessment-Short Form score, age, and RA duration.

Many patients with RA  known to develop sarcopenia. The bDMARDs showed negative, and other factors showed a positive relation with sarcopenia.