This study explored the association between dietary retinol intake and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).
The main objective was to determine whether increased dietary retinol intake could play a protective role against RA, a chronic inflammatory disease that mainly affects the joints.
To do this, the authors analysed data covering five NHANES cycles, from 2003 to 2012, involving a total of 22,971 participants.
The study used robust statistical analysis to examine the relationship between retinol intake and the presence of RA. Dietary retinol was taken as the independent variable, while RA was the dependent variable. The authors used a weighted logistic regression method to model this relationship. This approach takes into account the complexity of the NHANES sample, which is designed to be representative of the US population.
Two types of analysis were conducted: a stratified analysis without adjustment for confounding factors, and a subgroup analysis with adjustment for these factors.
These analyses examined how the association between retinol intake and RA varied according to different subgroups, such as gender, age and other demographic characteristics.
The results of the logistic regression analysis revealed an inverse association between retinol intake and RA. This means that an increase in retinol intake is associated with a reduced risk of developing RA. Stratified analysis revealed a significant interaction between gender and retinol intake. This interaction suggests that the protective effect of retinol may vary according to gender. In particular, in the female population, retinol intake appears to have a more marked protective effect against RA.
The results of this study suggested that an increased dietary intake of retinol is associated with a reduced risk of RA, particularly in women. The data indicated that women could benefit from increasing their retinol intake above 354.86 mcg per day to reduce their risk of developing this inflammatory disease. The authors therefore recommend that women increase their intake of retinol in their diet.
