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Abstract

OBJECTIVES
To determine the relationship between sociodemographic characteristics and the occurrence of cardiovascular events in RA patients admitted to the Tertiary Care Hospital in Peshawar.
METHODOLOGY
A cross-sectional study was conducted from November 1, 2023, to April 30, 2024, enrolling 211 RA patients (aged 25–70 years) diagnosed according to ACR/EULAR criteria. Cardiovascular events, defined as myocardial infarction (MI) and ischemic stroke, were documented from medical records. Data on age, gender, income, and education were collected and analysed using SPSS version 25. Associations were evaluated with chi-square tests, and a p-value <0.05 was considered significant.
RESULTSThe mean age of the patients was 48.07 ± 10.86 years, and the mean duration of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) was 5.71 ± 2.90 years. The male-to-female ratio was approximately 1.7:1. MI was observed in 43 patients (20.4%), and ischemic stroke in 48 patients (22.7%). There was no statistically significant association between cardiovascular events and any sociodemographic variable (p > 0.05).
CONCLUSION
Cardiovascular events, including MI and ischemic stroke, are common in RA patients; however, sociodemographic factors such as age, gender, income, and education were not significantly associated with their occurrence. Future research should investigate additional factors, including inflammatory biomarkers, disease activity, treatment regimens, and genetic predispositions, to gain a deeper understanding of cardiovascular risk in rheumatoid arthritis (RA).