Table 4.

Spearman’s rank correlations between disease characteristics and muscle CSA and muscle density outcomes (Z scores) before and after adjusting for fat Z scores (fat CSA or BMI)^*

	Muscle CSA	Fat-adjusted muscle CSA	Muscle density	BMI-adjusted muscle density
DAS28-CRP (per 1 unit)	−0.20	0.18	−0.30†	−0.33†
HAQ score (per 1 unit)	−0.12	0.11	−0.39†	−0.33†
Total SHS score (per 1 unit)	−0.33†	−0.29	−0.27	−0.36†
Disease duration (per 1 year)	−0.18	−0.14	−0.28	−0.25
Exercise (per MET hour)	0.052	0.012	0.011	−0.050
Sedentary time (per 1 hour)	0.24	0.20	−0.10	−0.24

^*CSA = cross-sectional area; BMI = body mass index; DAS28-CRP = Disease Activity Score in 28 joints using the C-reactive protein level; HAQ = Health Assessment Questionnaire; SHS = Sharp/van der Heijde; MET = metabolic equivalent.

^†P < 0.05.