Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) may cause damage to multiple organs and may further restrict the patient's physical, psychological and social functions. This meta-analysis aimed to explore the prevalence of frailty and prefrailty and the influential factors in RA patients.

PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane, Embase, and CNKI were searched to identify related articles. Articles published before July 23rd, 2021 that assessed frailty in patients with RA qualified for the systematic review and meta-analysis. A quality appraisal of the studies was performed using the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and Newcastle–Ottawa Scales. The pooled results were displayed as odds ratios or standardized mean differences (ORs/SMDs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

The article search generated 2273 articles, of which 16 satisfied the inclusion criteria and were merged in the final review. A total of 8556 RA patients were finally included. The pooled prevalence of frailty in the patients with RA was 33.5% (95% CI: 25.2–41.7%), and the pooled prevalence of prefrailty was 39.9% (95% CI: 29.4–50.3%). Subgroup analyses showed that frailty was more prevalent in females (24.7%) than in males (19.1%). The prevalence of prefrailty in females was similar to that in males among the RA patients. Frailty in RA was associated with the female sex (OR: 1.47, 95% CI: 1.04–2.07) and disease activity (OR: 1.47, 95% CI: 1.03–2.09).

Frailty is prevalent in RA patients. Female gender and disease activity are associated with the prevalence of frailty in RA patients.