Systematic reviewindependent cross-checkabstract checked I-LEG-117 standard review

Diet and the risk of rheumatoid arthritis

Diet and the risk of rheumatoid arthritis - A systematic literature review.

Overview

Bäcklund R et al.. Semin Arthritis Rheum 2023 · PMID 36379128 · DOI 10.1016/j.semarthrit.2022.152118

Studies give no consistent picture; fish, vegetables and Mediterranean diets may protect, and legumes were not identified as a risk.

Does the study support the specific claim? No · Methodological quality: moderate

Study explained simply

What did the researchers want to find out?: Review diet and RA risk.
How was the study done?: Systematic review.
How many people, animals or samples were studied?: 27 studies.
What was actually found?: Inconsistent; possible protective patterns.
How large was the observed effect?: Not pooled.
What do the results mean in everyday life?: There is no good evidence that particular foods such as legumes cause RA.
What are the study's limitations?: Heterogeneous.
What does it say about Elawady's specific claim?: C-LEG-02 remains unsupported.
Do the results apply to Germany and Europe?: Applicable.
What can explicitly not be concluded from this study?: It cannot exclude effects of single foods.

Which dietary patterns, foods and nutrients are related to the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis?

Study design: Systematic review – Systematic literature review (no meta-analysis); Newcastle-Ottawa quality assessment
Population: Cohort and case-control studies of RA risk
Country: International
Period: Not stated in abstract
Sample size: 19 cohort-based and 8 case-control studies
Inclusion and exclusion criteria: Temporal relation between diet and RA diagnosis required.

Results: Possible protective effects of fish, vegetables and Mediterranean-style diets; results heterogeneous; no consistent evidence on the role of diet. No harmful association for legumes reported in the abstract.
Absolute risks: Not applicable
Authors' conclusion: There is a lack of consistent evidence on diet in RA development; more high-quality studies are needed.

Not applicable.

Shows the diet-autoimmunity field is weakly studied; legumes are not identified as a risk factor for RA.

None.

Applicable.

Supports 'insufficiently studied / not supported' rather than 'refuted'.

Multidimensional assessment
Multidimensional assessment
Authenticity of the source	verified
Methodological quality	moderate
Risk of bias	some concerns
Precision of results	not applicable
Directness	indirect
Reproducibility	unknown
Consistency with the overall evidence	mixed
Regional transferability	moderate
Adequacy of the interpretation (by the archive)	not applicable

Legume-specific analyses for RA, lupus and MS.