Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases 2009;68:536-540
CLINICAL AND EPIDEMIOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Sex differences in the association between body mass index and total hip or knee joint replacement resulting from osteoarthritis
1 Department of Orthopaedics, Clinical Sciences Lund, Lund University, Sweden
2 University Hospital, Akureyri, Iceland
Dr J Franklin, Department of Orthopaedics, Lund University Hospital, 22185 Lund, Sweden; Jonas.Franklin{at}med.lu.se
Objective: To examine the association between body mass index (BMI) and osteoarthritis (OA) leading to total hip (THR) or knee (TKR) joint replacement.
Methods: Case–control study design. All patients still living in Iceland who had had a THR or TKR resulting from OA before the end of 2002 were invited to participate. First-degree relatives of participating patients served as controls. A total of 1473 patients (872 women) and 1103 controls (599 women), all born between 1910 and 1939 and who had answered a questionnaire including questions about height and weight, were analysed. A randomly selected sample, representative of the Icelandic population, was used as a secondary control group.
Results: The OR, adjusted for age, occupation and presence of hand OA, for having a THR was 1.1 (95% CI 0.9 to 1.5) for overweight men and 1.7 (95% CI 1.0 to 2.9) for obese men. The OR for having a TKR was 1.7 (95% CI 1.1 to 2.6) for overweight men and 5.3 (95% CI 2.8 to 10.1) for obese men. The OR for having a THR was 1.0 (95% CI 0.8 to 1.3) for overweight women and 1.0 (95% CI 0.6 to 1.5) for obese women. The OR for having a TKR was 1.6 (95% CI 1.1 to 2.2) for overweight women and 4.0 (95% CI 2.6 to 6.1) for obese women.
Conclusion: This study supports a positive association between high BMI and TKR in both sexes, but for THR the association with BMI seems to be weaker, and possibly negligible for women.
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
