Assessment of food habits and physical activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis in Zahedan city: a case-control study

Rheumatoid arthritis is the most common disease in the general society. Like many other chronic diseases, rheumatoid arthritis is related to lifestyle. The result of this study was conducted with the aim of determining the relationship between food habits and physical activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis in Zahedan.

In this case-control study, 170 healthy individuals referring to health centers in the city and 170 rheumatoid arthritis patients referred to AliIbnAbiTaleb Zahedan Hospital in 1401 were randomly selected. Validity and reliability questionnaires including eating habits and International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 software and using t-test and chi-square.

The results showed that salty foods (14.7% vs. 7.6%) and high-fat foods more than 3 times a month (52.4% vs. 35.9%) were more common in these patients than in the group. It is healthy. The number of overweight people in arthritis patients is more than the control group, and most of these people sleep less than 7 hours a day, have a low level of education and low income. There was also a significant relationship between physical activity between the two groups (p=0.001).

We found that the level of activity in these areas is lower compared to the general population. Rheumatoid arthritis patients have bad food habits. Therefore, a healthy lifestyle should be followed in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.