Work participation is reduced during the development of RA, months before clinical arthritis manifests

We investigated whether work participation is affected in patients with arthralgia during transition to RA. Arthralgia patients with symptom resolution and early RA patients at diagnosis were used as a reference.

Three groups of patients were studied: arthralgia patients converting to RA (n = 114), arthralgia patients with spontaneous symptom resolution (n = 57), and early RA patients (n = 617). Both presenteeism (i.e. working while sick, scale 0-10) and absenteeism (i.e. sick leave) were taken into account. Work ability 1 year prior to clinical arthritis was estimated (in absolute numbers). The course of work restriction over time was studied using linear mixed models (β coefficient; delta per month) within each patient group.

One-year prior to the development of clinical arthritis, mean presenteeism was 7.0 (95% CI 5.8, 8.1) in patients with arthralgia, indicating 30% loss, and further worsened to 6.1 (95% CI 5.3, 6.6) at RA diagnosis, thus indicating 39% loss. In early RA patients, presenteeism improved over time after DMARD initiation (β 0.052 per month 95% CI 0.042, 0.061, P < 0.0001). Presenteeism also improved in arthralgia patients who achieved spontaneous symptom resolution (β 0.063 per month, 95% CI 0.024, 0.10, P = 0.002). Absenteeism did not change significantly in arthralgia patients, but did improve in RA after DMARD-start. ACPA stratification revealed similar results.

In the months preceding RA, presenteeism was already apparent, and it worsened further during progression to clinical arthritis and diagnosis. This underlines the relevance of the symptomatic pre-RA phase for patients. The observed reversibility in arthralgia patients with symptom resolution may suggest that intervention in pre-RA could improve work participation.