Vitamin D status and its associations with disease activity and severity in African Americans with recent-onset rheumatoid arthritis.

Overview

OBJECTIVE: To examine the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency and the associations of vitamin D concentration with disease status in African Americans with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: Study participants (n = 266) were enrolled in the Consortium for the Longitudinal Evaluation of African Americans with Early RA (CLEAR) Registry. The vitamin 25(OH)-D was measured on baseline plasma, and associations of 25(OH)-D with disease status (baseline and at 3 years' disease duration) were examined using univariate and multivariate regression. RESULTS: The prevalence of 25(OH)-D insufficiency (