The study showed that a number of working conditions were associated with an increased risk of Raynaud's phenomenon and finger sensitivity to cold. Changes in working conditions might reduce the risk of this disorder in the food processing industry.

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Background: Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is characterized by increased cardiovascular (CV) mortality. CV events are particularly high in patients with RA-specific autoimmunity, including rheumatoid factor (RF) and anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA), raising the question whether RA-specific autoimmunity itself is associated with CV events.Methods: New CV events (myocardial infarction, stroke or death by CV cause) were recorded in 20,625 subjects of the Electricité de France – Gaz de France (GAZEL) cohort. Self-reported RA cases in the GAZEL cohort were validated by phone interview on the basis of a specific questionnaire. In 1,618 subjects, in whom serum was available, RF and ACPA were measured. A piecewise exponential Poisson regression was used to analyze the association of CV events with presence of RA as well as RA-specific autoimmunity (without RA).Results: CV events in GAZEL were associated with age, male sex, smoking, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and diabetes mellitus (HR from 1.06 to 1.87, p < 0.05). Forty-two confirmed RA cases were identified. Confirmed RA was significantly associated with CV risk increase (HR of 3.03; 95% CI: 1.13-8.11, p=0.03) independently of conventional CV risk factors. One hundred seventy-eight subjects showed RF or ACPA positivity without presence of RA. CV events were not associated with ACPA positivity (HR: 1.52, 95% CI: 0.47-4.84, p= 0.48) or RF positivity (HR: 1.15, 95% CI: 0.55-2.40, p= 0.70) in the absence of RA.Conclusions: RA, as a clinical chronic inflammatory disease, but not mere positivity for RF or ACPA in the absence of clinical disease is associated with increased CV risk.