Descriptive characteristics of study participants
| Statin use* | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristic | No | Yes | ||
| n | 2510 | 661 | ||
| Years on statin medication | 0 | 4.28 | (3.39) | |
| Age years mean (SD) | 65.96 | (8.10) | 68.8 | (6.52) |
| BMI kg/m2 mean (SD) | 29.10 | (5.27) | 29.92 | (5.19) |
| Years with joint pain mean (SD)† | 8.49 | (9.46) | 8.55 | (9.88) |
| F (n=1537) % (n) | 51.3% | (n=1288) | 37.7% | (n=249) |
| Cardiovascular disease (n=1679) % (n)‡ | 43.1% | (n=1082) | 90.3% | (n=597) |
| Medication for pain (n=1767) % (n) | 54.9% | (n=1378) | 58.8% | (n=389) |
| Ever-smoked: ex-smokers (n=1487) and current smokers (n=429) % (n) | 58.0% | (n=1457) | 69.4% | (n=459) |
| Controls (n=805) % (n) | 26.7% | (n=669) | 20.6% | (n=136) |
| Nodal OA (n=106) % (n)§ | 3.3% | (n=83) | 3.5% | (n=23) |
| Knee OA (n=729) % (n)¶ | 21.8% | (n=546) | 27.7% | (n=183) |
| Hip OA (n=499) % (n)¶ | 15.9% | (n=399) | 15.1% | (n=100) |
| Hip and knee OA (n=427) % (n)¶ | 12.7% | (n=318) | 16.5% | (n=109) |
| Generalised knee OA: nodal+knee (n=238) | 7.5% | (n=188) | 7.6% | (n=50) |
| Generalised hip OA: nodal+hip (n=142) | 4.7% | (n=118) | 3.6% | (n=24) |
| Generalised hip and knee OA: nodal+hip and knee (n=225) | 7.5% | (n=189) | 5.4% | (n=36) |
*Study participants underwent a home visit9 and the research nurse reviewed medications and repeat prescriptions from participants. Participants were classified as being on statin medication if they were taking any of the following medications: pravastatin, rosuvastatin, simvastatin, atorvastatin or fluvastatin. No information on dose was available.
†For patients with only knee OA (nodal or not) this is the years with knee pain; for patients with hip OA, the years with hip pain; for patients with both knee and hip OA, this is the largest of years with hip or knee pain; controls are not included, for asymptomatic cases it is 0.
‡Comorbidities were evaluated by nurse-applied questionnaire. A participant is considered to have cardiovascular disease if they replied yes to the question ‘have you been diagnosed by your general practitioner or a specialist to have heart disease or hypertension’.
§The presence of Heberden's and Bouchard's nodes was assessed by a nurse. The nodal phenotype was defined as Heberden's and/or Bouchard's nodes that affected at least two rays of each hand.
¶Hip OA was defined as Kellgren–Lawrence at the pelvis (K/L) ≥2) knee OA cases (K/L ≥2)=1617 controls.
BMI, Body Mass Index; OA, osteoarthritis.