Obesity and osteoarthritis of the knee: Evidence from the national health and nutrition examination survey (NHANES I)

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Abstract

The importance of systemic/metabolic factors in the association of obesity with radiographic knee Osteoarthritis (OA) was examined for 3,905 adults aged 45 to 74 from the United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1971 to 1975 (NHANES I). Obesity was associated with both bilateral and unilateral OA, but more strongly with bilateral OA. Obesity was also associated with both symptomatic and nonsymptomatic knee OA. Controlling for age, sex, serum cholesterol, serum uric acid, diabetes, body fat distribution, bone density, and blood pressure did not significantly reduce the association between obesity and knee OA. Findings from these data are not supportive of a metabolic link between obesity and knee OA.

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    Supported by grants from the National Institute of Aging (AG07802 and AG00421) and the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (AM21393).

    1

    From the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA.

    2

    From the Department of Medicine, Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC.

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