Mcguire K, et al. - Researchers assessed the risk of incident chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) hospitalization in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) compared to the general population. They calculated the incidence rates, 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs), and incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for RA and controls. In order to test the robustness of the results to the possible confounding effect of smoking, unavailable in administrative data, and to COPD outcome definitions, sensitivity analyses were performed. Compared to the general population, a 47% greater risk of COPD hospitalization was seen in the individuals with RA. After modeling for smoking and with varying COPD definitions, the increased risk remained significant.