An increased intake of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in the diet of patients with rheumatoid arthritis has a favourable effect on the course of the disease. The objective of the present work was to assess the effect of such a diet on the daily consumption of non-steroid antirheumatic drugs in children with juvenile chronic arthritis.
A group of 23 children with the diagnosis of chronic juvenile arthritis was divided by the method of random numbers into two groups. The first group received in addition to ibuprofen treatment a diet with an increased content of omega-3 PUFA. The second group served as control. In the first group (13 patients, mean age 11 years) in the course of five months treatment the original ibuprofen consumption declined by 17.3% (from a mean value of 28.4 mg/kg/day to 23.4 mg/kg/day), while in the control group (10 children, mean age 9.1 years) there was a decline of 6.5% (from a mean value of 23.7 mg/kg/day to 22.7 mg/kg/day). This difference was statistically significant at the level of 0.05 (P = 0.03).
Despite the statistically significant difference in the decline of daily consumption of the non-steroid antirheumatic drug in the investigated groups of patients and the obvious favourable effect of omega-3 PUFA the mean consumption of the drug remained in the first group after five months of treatment higher (23.4 mg/kg/day) than in the control group (22.4 mg/kg/day).