Association between Herpes simplex virus type1/2 infection and rheumatoid arthritis risk among adults in NHANES, 2001-2016.

Abstract

Abstract Objectives: To explore the Association between human herpes simplex virus(HSV) type 1 or type 2 infection and the risk of rheumatoid arthritis(RA), and what is this relationship. Methods: We evaluated the associations of HSV-1/2 antibody levels with the risk of RA among U.S. adults from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 2001-2016. We developed four independent multivariate logistic regression models to evaluate the association between HSV-1/2 infection and the risk for RA the population. Results: Finally, we analyzed 1346, 1343 and 1343 subjects, respectively. In all models, HSV-1 infection significantly reduced the prevalence of RA in adults aged 18-49 years, with the lowest odds ratio (OR) (after weighting: OR 0.73, 95% CI 0.72, 0.73), whereas HSV-2 infection was positively associated with an increased prevalence of RA in population aged 18-49 years, with the highest value of the OR (after weighting: OR 1.69, 95% CI 1.69, 1.69), after correction for confounders such as age, sex, race, education level, marital status, smoking,alcohol, diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and missing values or removing the effect of the interaction between the two viruses, these connections still exist. Conclusion: In summary, these findings indicated that HSV-1 infection can reduce the prevalence of RA in adults, while HSV-2 infection is positively associated with the prevalence of RA in adults. However, our findings need more powerful to prove these associations through rigorously designed prospective studies.