Excerpt
Smoking is probably one of the worst public health issues that each one of us can influence ourselves. It is nearly 60 years since the 2 epidemiologists Sir Richard Doll and Bradford Hill described a strong association between smoking and increased risk of lung cancer1. Smoking has also since been associated with cardiovascular diseases and rheumatoid arthritis (RA)2–5, among other diseases.
Smoking is so far the most established environmental risk factor for developing RA, especially RA characterized by presence of antibodies to citrullinated proteins (anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide, anti-CCP)4,5. Smoking is therefore a very important confounder to consider when studying…