Most children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis are diagnosed with different form of arthritis as adults

The diagnosis of juvenile idiopathic arthritis is reclassified to another form of arthritis in two-thirds of people in adulthood, says research in RMD Open.

A total of 426 people with JIA on the Rheumatic Diseases Portuguese Register older than 18 years and with more than five years of disease duration were included in the study.

Key findings

• Most people with JIA fulfilled criteria for Adult Still’s disease;
• 6% of people with rheumatoid factor-positive polyarthritis and 57.1% of people with rheumatoid factor-negative polyarthritis matched criteria for rheumatoid arthritis;
• 9% of people with extended oligoarthritis were classified as rheumatoid arthritis;
• 8% of people with persistent oligoarthritis were classified as spondyloarthritis;
• Those with psoriatic arthritis maintained this classification;
• People with inactive disease had lower disease duration, lower diagnosis delay and corticosteroids exposure;
• Longer disease duration was associated with greater disease damage scores;
• Younger age at disease onset predicted greater disease damage scores and decreased the chance of inactive disease.

“Most of the included patients fulfilled classification criteria for adult rheumatic diseases, maintain active disease and have functional impairment,” the research group concludes. “Younger age at disease onset was predictive of higher disability and decreased the chance of inactive disease.”

Click here to read the original research.

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