The risk and prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is still obscure. The current study was aimed to systematically review and meta-analyse the risk ratio (RR) and prevalence of COPD in RA.
A comprehensive systematic review was conducted based on PubMed, Web of Science and Cochrane Library from inception to April 30, 2018. The primary outcome of our study was the RR of COPD in RA patients compared with controls, and secondary was the prevalence of COPD in RA patients. Pooled effect sizes were calculated according to fixed effect model or random effects model depending on heterogeneity.
Six and eight studies reported the RR and prevalence of COPD in RA respectively. Compared with controls, RA patients have significant increased risk of incident COPD with pooled RR 1.82 (95% CI = 1.55 to 2.10, P <  0.001). The pooled prevalence of COPD in RA patients was 6.2% (95% CI = 4.1 to 8.3%). Meta-regression identified that publication year was an independent covariate negatively associated with the RR of COPD, and smoker proportion of RA population was also positively associated with the prevalence of COPD significantly in RA patients.
The present meta-analysis has demonstrated the significant increased risk and high prevalence of COPD in RA patients. Patients with RA had better cease tobacco use and rheumatologists should pay attention to the monitoring of COPD for the prevention and control of COPD.