Having allergic diseases such as asthma or eczema would expose you to a greater risk of osteoarthritis, according to a new study.
- The risk of developing osteoarthritis was between 42% and 58% higher in people with asthma or eczema, according to results from the two databases studied.
- Patients with both conditions were twice as likely to develop osteoarthritis as those without atopic disease, or had a 19% higher risk according to the second database.
- The researchers suggest that drugs used to dampen allergic reactions in the body could potentially help treat or prevent osteoarthritis, given the results of this study.
People who suffer from atopic (allergic) conditions like asthma or eczema may be at increased risk of osteoarthritis, a painful and often debilitating joint condition, according to recent research. published online in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases of British Medical Journal. Medications used to dampen allergic reactions in the body could help reduce this risk, the researchers suggest.
Certain white blood cells play a key role in the development of osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis but there is still no effective cure. Treatment focuses primarily on symptom management. Several works suggest that the activation of a type of white blood cells called mast cells and of inflammatory chemicals (cytokines) involved in allergic reactions could play a key role in the development of osteoarthritis. But it’s not clear that people with allergic asthma or eczema are at greater risk of developing the disease.
To find out, the researchers relied on an American national insurance database (Optum CDM) between January 2003 and June 2019. Data from 109,899 people with atopic disease (asthma, eczema) were compared to the same number of people without allergic asthma or eczema. The average age was 52 for the first group and 50 for the second.
A risk between 42 and 58% higher when you suffer from asthma or eczema
The risk of developing osteoarthritis, over the study’s 8-year follow-up period, was 58% higher in people with allergic asthma or eczema compared to people without atopic disease . In other words, there would be 27 new cases versus 19 new cases if 100 people with and without atopic diseases were followed for 10 years each.
This trend was even more noticeable among the 4,325 people with both allergic asthma and eczema: they were twice as likely to develop osteoarthritis as those without atopic disease. Similarly, the 11,820 people with allergic asthma alone were 83% more likely to develop osteoarthritis over 8 years than those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a lung disease that does not involve allergic pathways.
Osteoarthritis: the results could lead to adapting treatments
The researchers then compared the risk of osteoarthritis in people with and without asthma/allergic eczema using digital health records from the Stanford Research Repository (STARR) for the period 2010 to 2020 (114,427 patients, including 43,728 with asthma allergy or eczema and 70,699 with no history of atopic disease) to see if they obtained similar results.
After adjusting for BMI, the risk of developing osteoarthritis was 42% higher in people with allergic asthma or eczema, and 19% in those with both. The fact that the observed associations were weaker among STARR participants, for whom BMI information was available unlike the previous database used, suggests that other factors may be involved, the researchers point out.
“Our results further support the concept that allergic pathways may contribute to the development of osteoarthritis. If indeed true, nonatopic patients may also benefit from the use of treatments that inhibit mast cells and allergic cytokines to treat or prevent osteoarthritis”conclude the authors of the study.
