The objective of the proposed study is to assess bone health and determinants of bone health among select subpopulations of rheumatoid arthritis patients.

The overall hypothesis of this study is that osteopenia and/or osteoporosis are common among African Americans and men with rheumatoid arthritis and there are identifiable genetic and environmental factors contributing to the pathogenesis of bone loss in these groups.

The Specific Aims of the study are to:

1. Determine baseline hip and lumbar spine bone density (BMD) values and osteopenia/osteoporosis prevalence among African American men and women with early RA and among male veterans with established RA.
2. Identify environmental factors and candidate alleles, which confer increased risk of reduced baseline BMD loss over time among African American men and women with early RA and among male veterans with established RA.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Clinical diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis per ACR guidelines

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients with diagnosis > 2yrs (CLEAR study)

CLEAR enroll African American RA patients from 4 core academic centers in the Southeast U.S. VARA enroll RA patientss from participating VA medical centers.