Risk Factors of Symptomatic Knee, Hand and Hip Osteoarthritis in a Suburban Area of İzmir City

Abstract

Objective: To determine the risk factors of symptomatic knee, hand, and hip osteoarthritis among people aged ≥40 years in a suburban area of İzmir City, Turkey Material and Methods: A total of 522 subjects were randomly chosen with systematic randomization. All subjects fulfilled a detailed survey and had a physical examination. Any subject who met at least one of the ACR clinical criteria for knee/hand/hip osteoarthritis (OA) was considered as screening positive and was invited for x-rays. Results: We report that the symptomatic knee, hand, and hip osteoarthritis prevalence correspondingly increases with age. Symptomatic knee osteoarthritis (SKO) has a positive correlation with female gender (OR: 26.5, 95% CI: 7.6-92.3), obesity, morbid obesity (OR:5.8, 95% CI:2.1-16.2), and regular prayer habit (namaz) (OR:2.6, 95% CI: 1.1-6.2). SKO and symptomatic hand osteoarthritis (SHaO) prevalence numbers are higher in the postmenopausal female group than premenopausal women (p<0.05). We determined that poorly educated people had a 1.5-times higher risk for developing SKO (p=0.649). Non-smokers had 1.5 times the risk of smokers for developing OA. Subjects lacking symptomatic knee OA were found to be significantly more active than the other groups. Conclusion: Risk factors for development of symptomatic knee, hand, and hip osteoarthritis were determined as female gender, advanced age, obesity, and being in postmenopausal stage. Low education level, being a non-smoker, having a regular prayer habit, climbing stairs, being a worker, and sedentary life were also risk factors for having knee osteoarthritis. It is an obvious issue that we need countrywide studies with larger populations to build a health policy for osteoarthritis.