Association Between Menopausal Factors and the Risk of Seronegative and Seropositive Rheumatoid Arthritis: Results From the Nurses’ Health Studies

Objective To investigate whether menopausal factors are associated with the development of serologic rheumatoid arthritis ( RA ) phenotypes. Methods Data were analyzed from the Nurses’ Health Studies ( NHS ; 1976–2010 and NHSII 1989–2011). A total of 120,700 female nurses ages 30–55 years in the NHS , and a total of 116,430 female nurses ages 25–42 years in the NHSII , were followed via biennial questionnaires on lifestyle and disease outcomes....