Rheumatoid arthritis and falls

The study of C. Boehler and colleagues tried to correlate disease activity of rheumatoid arthritis and falls (Abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22879462). “Conclusion: The strongest correlation with falls was evident for patient-reported outcomes. Pain seems to be the common ground of these parameters.”
As falls should be avoided, this study suggests an increased attention towards the risk of falling. Patients with a higher level of disease activity are at a higher risk of falling. Pain seems to play a pivotal role. So control of pain and disease activity may reduce the risk. Concomitant osteoporosis is also of interest, but this issue hasn’t been addressed in the study. Also physiotherapy and especially muscle building exercise may be helpful in preventing falls.