Introduction / objectives Management of anxiety and depression in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients is vital. Previous studies investigating this topic are conflicting, and this topic still has not been thoroughly investigated. This study aimed to clarify the association of disease activity with anxiety and depression after controlling for physical disability, pain, and treatment.Method We conducted a cross-sectional study of RA patients from the Kyoto University Rheumatoid Arthritis Management Alliance cohort. For assessments, we used the Disease Activity Score (DAS28), Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ-DI), and Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale.Depression and anxiety were defined by a Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale score ≥8. We then performed multivariable logistic regression analyses.
ResultsOf 517 participants, 17.9% had anxiety, and 28.2% had depression. The multivariable logistic regression analyses showed patients with DAS28-based non-remission had low association with anxiety (odds ratio [OR] [95% confidence interval {CI}], 0.93 [0.48-1.78]: p = 0.82) but slight association with depression (OR [95% CI], 1.45 [0.81-2.61]: p = 0.22). However, severity of the patient's global assessment (PtGA) on DAS28 was associated with anxiety (OR [95% CI], 1.15 [1.02-1.29]; p = 0.03) and depression (OR [95% CI], 1.21 [1.09-1.35]; p < 0.01). Additionally, HAQ-DI-based non-remission was associated with anxiety (OR [95% CI], 3.51 [1.85-6.64]; p < 0.01) and depression (OR [95% CI], 2.65 [1.56-4.50]; p < 0.01). Younger patients (OR [95% CI], 0.83 [0.68-1.01]; p = 0.07) and patients not treated with methotrexate (OR [95% CI], 0.67 [0 .40-1.13]; p = 0.13) tended to suffer from anxiety. Patients using steroids had a closer association with depression than those not using them (OR [95% CI], 1.66 [1.03-2.67]; p = 0.04).Conclusions Assessment of disease activity, PtGA, and HAQ-DI are important for assessing anxiety and depression in RA patients. Attention should be paid to improving PtGA and physical function.