Objective To systematically evaluate the prevalence of frailty in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods A systematic search method for observational studies on the prevalence of frailty in patients with RA was conducted, and literature screening, data extraction as well as evaluation of literature quality were performed in strict accordance with evidence-based medical research methodology. Meta-analysis and Egger's linear regression analysis were performed by Stata 16.0 software.

Results Twenty-six literatures were included in the study, including a total sample size of 22, 547 patients. The results of the analysis showed that the total prevalence of frailty in patients with RA was 36% (95%CI, 0.26 to 0.45, P < 0.001), and the prevalence of pre-frailty was 43% (95%CI, 0.36 to 0.50, P < 0.001). The results of subgroup analysis showed that the incidence of frailty was higher in RA patients with features of female, age over 60 years old, hospitalization, living in European region and evaluation with multi-dimensional comprehensive frailty assessment tool and the specific RA frailty assessment tool.

Conclusion The overall incidence of frailty and pre-frailty in RA patients is high, and there are differences in the incidence of frailty among patients with different ages, genders, environments, regions, and types of assessment tools.