New Osteoarthritis Diagnosis is Associated with Comorbidities

Several medical conditions can develop after the 60s , one of those is osteoarthritis, which is associated with more than 40 medical issues  according to research presented at the OARSI 2022 World Congress.

Kamps and associates performed a nested case-control study using data from a large Dutch general practice database. All new cases of OA – which included hip, knee, and other peripheral OA – that were logged between the start of 2006 and the end of 2019 were considered and matched to one to four control subjects of a similar age, sex, and type of general practice. In all, there were just under 80,000 people with newly diagnosed OA who were matched to just over 318,000 controls; the mean age in both groups was 64 years.

Which comorbidities were associated with a new osteoarthritis diagnosis ?

In this study 58 comorbidities were assessed , 42 showed a positive association with OA and had a high risk level that is represented by an Odds Ratio (OR) higher than 1. The highest associations were found for fibromyalgia (OR, 1.9), obesity (1.8), polymyalgia rheumatica (1.5), spinal disc herniation (1.4), and gout (1.4). Nonetheless , the study had shown  3 medical conditions that were not associated , dementia, schizophrenia, and multiple sclerosis. 

So, this means that either there is something linked to osteoarthritis that makes people frailer and more likely to develop other diseases, or there may be links between these other diseases, that we often call comorbidities, and osteoarthritis.

Maybe people with a certain disease profile should be screened a bit more often by their doctor. For example, if someone has their blood pressure and diabetes under control, maybe there should also be a bit more attention to their joint health and encouragement to do exercise, not only for being active per se, but maybe also to reinforce their lower limbs.

As we have been talking in other articles about  the benefit of Stem Cells therapy on osteomuscular conditions, it can help you to combat other associated diseases , not only by the therapy per se, but treating the main problem may take away all other medical conditions.

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Source:

Andrea Dell’Isola, (June 21, 2022). Risk of Comorbidities Following Physician-Diagnosed Knee or Hip Osteoarthritis: A Register-Based Cohort Study. American College of Rheumatology: Arthritis care and research. Retrieved from : https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/acr.24717 

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