The association between systemic immune-inflammation index and rheumatoid arthritis: evidence from NHANES 1999–2018

Purpose We aimed to explore the relationship between the systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) using NHANES from 1999 to 2018. Methods We collected data from the NHANES database from 1999 to 2018. The SII is calculated from the counts of lymphocytes (LC), neutrophils (NC), and platelets (PC). The RA patients were derived from questionnaire data. We used weighted multivariate regression analysis and subgroup analysis to explore the relationship between SII and RA. Furthermore, the restricted cubic splines were used to explore the non-linear relationships. Result Our study included a total of 37,604 patients, of which 2642 (7.03%) had rheumatoid arthritis. After adjusting for all covariates, the multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that high SII (In-transform) levels were associated with an increased likelihood of rheumatoid arthritis (OR=1.167, 95% CI=1.025–1.328, P =0.020). The interaction test revealed no significant effect on this connection. In the restricted cubic spline regression model, the relationship between ln-SII and RA was non-linear. The cutoff value of SII for RA was 578.25. The risk of rheumatoid arthritis increases rapidly when SII exceeds the cutoff value. Conclusion In general, there is a positive correlation between SII and rheumatoid arthritis. Our study shows that SII is a novel, valuable, and convenient inflammatory marker that can be used to predict the risk of rheumatoid arthritis in US adults.