Association Between Ultraprocessed Food Intake and Self-Reported Arthritis
Zhu Y, Garcia-Larsen V, Bromage S, Martinez-Steele E, Curi-Hallal AL, Rebholz CM, Matsuzaki M
American journal of preventive medicine · 5 citations
Review labels
Neutral facts our review recorded about how this study was done. They describe method, never whether we like the result.
How it was studied
- Design
- Cross-sectional study (indexed by PubMed)
- Studied in
- People
- Main outcome
- Clinical events such as disease or death
- Intake measured by
- Food diaries or recalls
Who paid for it
- Funding
- Independent funding
- Government
- Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
- Government
- National Institutes of Health
- Government
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
- Government
- National Heart Lung and Blood Institute
- Government
- NHLBI NIH HHS
- Government
- State of Sao Paulo Research Foundation
- Grants
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (R01HL153178); Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (2023/16144‐3); National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (K01 HL165465); National Institutes of Health (R01 HL153178)
Based on 6 listed funder(s).
Publication
- Published
- 2025-02-28 · Am J Prev Med · vol. 68 · issue 6 · pp. 1109–1119
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Cited
- 5 citations · more than 94% of similar papers · 4.5× the field average
- Impact
- Top 10% most cited in its field
- References
- 76 works
- Access
- Open access (hybrid journal) · CC-BY
- Research areas
- Consumer Attitudes and Food Labeling · Nutrition, Genetics, and Disease · Nutrition and Health in Aging
- Keywords
- Medicine, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, Rheumatoid arthritis, Odds ratio, Confidence interval, Quartile, Arthritis, Internal medicine, Overweight, Physical therapy, Environmental health, Body mass index, Population
- MeSH
- humans, arthritis, arthritis, rheumatoid, diet, nutrition surveys, cross-sectional studies, energy intake, food handling, adult, aged, middle aged, united states, female, male, self report
7 authors
From US, TH, BR
- Yanxin ZhuJohns Hopkins University
- Vanessa García-LarsenJohns Hopkins University
- Sabri BromageMahidol University
- Euridice Martinez-SteeleUniversidade de São Paulo
- Ana Luiza Curi HallalJohns Hopkins University; Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
- Casey M. RebholzJohns Hopkins University
Abstract
Introduction
Ultraprocessed foods are typically high in fat, salt, sugar, and food additives, which may contribute to the development of arthritis. This study examined the association between ultraprocessed food intake and the presence of self-reported arthritis.
Methods
The 2001-2018 U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data was used to analyze the association between ultraprocessed food intake and arthritis in 2025. Ultraprocessed foods were identified by applying Nova classifications to 24-hour dietary recall data and expressed as a percentage of daily total energy intake. The outcomes were self-reported physician's diagnosis of arthritis, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis. Survey-weighted logistic regressions were conducted to analyze associations between ultraprocessed food intake and outcomes, controlling for age, gender, race/ethnicity, smoking status, health insurance status, and poverty-to-income ratio.
Results
UPFs contributed 55.2% of the daily total energy intake in the U.S.
Population
After adjusting for covariates, a positive association was found between daily total energy intake from ultraprocessed foods and self-reported arthritis (AOR associated with each 10-percentage point increase in intake: 1.04; 95% CI=1.02, 1.06). For the second, third, and fourth quartiles of ultraprocessed food intake, the AOR of arthritis was 1.14 (95% CI=1.04, 1.25), 1.22 (95% CI=1.10, 1.35), and 1.27 (95% CI=1.14, 1.41), respectively (p for linear trend <0.001). A positive association was also observed between ultraprocessed food intake and rheumatoid arthritis (AOR=1.05; 95% CI=1.02, 1.09) but not for osteoarthritis.
Conclusions
In this nationally representative sample of U.S. adults, higher consumption of ultraprocessed foods was associated with overall arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
Abstract via Europe PMC. Copyright remains with the authors or publisher (CC BY).
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