Study suggests link between painful knee osteoarthritis and higher mortality in women

A new Arthritis Research UK study has suggested there may be a link between painful knee osteoarthritis and higher mortality rates in women.

Presented at the World Congress on Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases, the research revealed there is a strong association between painful knee osteoarthritis and early overall and cardiovascular mortality in middle-aged women.

Using data from the Chingford Study, which is based on a group of middle-aged females followed up for 24 years, scientists compared differences between individuals with painful knee or hand osteoarthritis and those without the condition.

Over an average follow-up period of 22 years, it was found that women with knee pain and radiographic osteoarthritis had almost double the risk of overall early mortality and a more than three-fold higher risk of cardiovascular mortality. No link was revealed between hand osteoarthritis and higher mortality.

Dr Stefan Kluzek of the Arthritis Research UK Centre of Excellence for Sport, Exercise and Osteoarthritis at the University of Oxford stated: "These findings suggest that any self-reported knee pain in osteoarthritis, as opposed to hand pain, seems to be a crucial factor leading to early cardiovascular mortality and is likely to be linked with decreased mobility."

He said further research is now needed to understand the steps people take to adapt to knee pain and how this then leads to cardiovascular impairment.A spokeswoman for Arthritis Research UK commented: "Many people with painful osteoarthritis don’t do the exercise that would help reduce their pain and increase their muscle strength because they fear, wrongly, that this will make their arthritis, and their pain, worse.

"We need to get the message across of the importance losing weight and regular exercise in reducing the pain associated with osteoarthritis of the knee, which will also improve the general health and fitness of both men and women."

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