Frailty carries an increased risk of death in rheumatoid arthritis
Authors' conclusion
There is a stepwise increase in mortality risk and decrease in survival time, associated with higher degrees of frailty in RA.
Study context
- Population
- Veterans with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the Veterans Association Rheumatoid Arthritis (VARA) Registry enrolled 1/2003 to 12/2020 (mean age 64.3 years; 88 % male)1,283 (46 %) died
- Participants
- 2,792 veterans
- Exposure
- Baseline frailty categories vs robust
- Robustn = 883reference
- Prefrailn = 1,112
- Mildly frailn = 520
- Moderately to severely frailn = 277
- Outcome
- Mortality
Methodological detailsregistry-based, multivariable Cox proportional hazard modeling
- Registry-based
- Multivariable Cox proportional hazard modeling
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
All-cause mortality by baseline frailty (VA-FI) · 20 years of observation
Each group vs robustAdjusted hazard ratio (95 % CI)
Prefrail
1.46(1.25–1.69)
Mild frailty
1.97(1.66–2.33)
Moderate/severe frailty
2.93(2.39–3.59)
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
VA Frailty Index (VA-FI) frailty domains and mortality
- Morbidities and functional impairments had the highest association with mortality
Original publication
Frailty carries an increased risk of death in rheumatoid arthritis. Semin Arthritis Rheum. Published 7 November 2025. doi:10.
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