Obesity tied to higher disease activity in children with JIA

In children newly diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), obesity is associated with increased disease activity and limited access to healthy food in chain grocery stores, suggests a Canada study.

“However, greater access to both healthy and unhealthy food was associated with lower disease activity, possibly reflecting the general benefits of urban living,” the authors said.

This study used clinical data from children newly diagnosed with JIA (2017‒2021) in the Canadian Alliance of Pediatric Rheumatology Investigators Registry and linked these to neighbourhood-level food accessibility measures using postal codes.

The authors analysed data at enrolment and at 1-year follow-up. They also examined the associations using Spearman rho correlations, Mann-Whitney U tests, and mixed-effects linear regression.

Of the 641 JIA patients analysed, 12.9 percent were overweight or obese and lived in areas with reduced access to chain grocery stores (p=0.02) compared with those with underweight or healthy BMI.

At baseline, patients with healthy weight (p=0.02) and overweight (p=0.04) showed a lower disease activity (Clinical Juvenile Arthritis Disease Activity Score in 10 joints) than those with obesity, and this association was not seen at 1-year follow-up. In addition, a greater proportion of fast-food restaurants in the neighbourhood correlated with fewer active joints (r_s, −0.09; p=0.04).

Furthermore, higher densities of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores correlated with lower disease activity (r_s, −0.14; p=0.02) at 1 year.

“A healthy diet may contribute to improved disease activity in JIA,” the authors said.