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Women who regularly eat fish are less likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis, a new study suggests.

New research has linked regular consumption of dietary long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in fish to a reduced risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in women.

Swedish researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm looked at the association between dietary long-chain n-3 PUFAs and the incidence of RA in middle-aged and older women from the Swedish Mammography Cohort, according to HealthDay. Researchers said that diet was evaluated using a self-administered food-frequency questionnaire in 1987 and 1997.

Study results showed that there were 205 cases of rheumatoid arthritis during follow-up averaging 7.5 years among 32,232 women born in 1914 to 1948.

The study found that women who consumed more than 0.21 grams a day of dietary long-chain n-3 PUFAs were 35 percent less likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis than women who ate less.

Furthermore, long-term, regular intake of more than 0.21 g/day correlated with a 52 percent decrease in risk of rheumatoid arthritis.

However, women who ate at least one weekly serving of fish on a routine, long-term basis were 29 percent less likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis compared to those who consumed less fish.

"Long-term consistently high intake in both 1987 and 1997 of >0.21 g/day (corresponding to at least one serving per week of fatty fish [e.g., salmon] or four servings per week of lean fish [e.g., cod]) was associated with a 52 percent decrease in risk of RA," researchers wrote.

The findings are published in the journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.