This new study, published in Wiley’s Arthritis & Rheumatology, was led by Dr Kazuki Yoshida, an Associate Epidemiologist and Instructor in Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, in the USA.

According to new research, children whose parents smoke have a 75 percent increased chance of acquiring rheumatoid arthritis as adults.

Parental smoking has been established as a significant risk factor for rheumatoid arthritis development.

The team analyzed clinical data from 90,923 Nurses’ Health Study II participants in 1989, which included female registered nurses aged 25–42 years. Researchers discovered that 532 of the nurses in the study got rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 28.

Further examination of these participants’ life histories found that parental smoking as children was linked to a 75 percent increased risk of getting rheumatoid arthritis.

“We used advanced statistical methods that allowed us to decipher the potential direct harm of early-life passive smoking experience on rheumatoid arthritis risk, while also taking into account factors occurring throughout adulthood,” Dr Yoshida said in a press release.

When the individuals were adults, the elevated risk was identified regardless of other established risk factors, such as personal smoking. Researchers discovered an even higher incidence of rheumatoid arthritis in these instances.

“These results suggest that early life inhalant exposures such as passive smoking may pre-dispose individuals to develop rheumatoid arthritis later in life,” said Dr Jeffrey A. Sparks, also from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and senior author of the study.

Image Credit: GEtty