Childhood obesity would increase the risk ofarthritis of the knee and hip in adulthood, according to the results ofa published study presented at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR 2018).
L’obesity and thearthritis are two interrelated health care issues that affect a large portion of the world’s adult population, but investigating causation in this association is difficult due to confounding factors. To test the hypothesis that the association between obesity and osteoarthritis is causal, the researchers used a method known as “Mendelian randomization,” which uses genetic variants to determine whether a biomarker has an effect on the risk of developing a disease.
“Obesity in childhood and adulthood is an important public health problem,” said Professor Johannes W. Bijlsma, President of EULAR. “These data showing a causal relationship with osteoarthritis should add new impetus to tackle the problem of obesity and reduce the disabilities associated with it.”
The results of the study revealed that thebody mass index (BMI) of adults significantly increases the prevalence ofarthritis, osteoarthritis of the knee or hip of 2.7%, 1.3% and 0.4% per unit (1 kg / m2). But also that BMI in children has significantly increased the prevalence of osteoarthritis,knee osteoarthritis or self-reported hip 1.7%, 0.6%, and 0.6% per unit BMI, respectively. No association was found between adult or pediatric BMI and hand osteoarthritis.
“Our results suggest that the effect of adult BMI appears to be stronger on the knees, while theBMI childhood could have a similar impact on the risk of osteoarthritis of the knee and hip, “said Professor Prieto-Alhambra.” Interestingly, our results contradict previous studies that found an association between obesity and osteoarthritis of the hand. “
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