More than 40 medical conditions were positively associated with having a new diagnosis of osteoarthritis according to research presented at the OARSI 2022 World Congress.
"Some of the associations that we have found are previously known, such as of course, obesity, which is a known risk factor, but also other musculoskeletal conditions, depression, and reflux disease," said Anne Kamps, an MD and PhD student at Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
"But there are also some remarkable associations that we have found that are less well known, such as liver cirrhosis, thromboembolic disease, sinusitis, allergy, and migraine," said Kamps during her presentation at the conference, sponsored by the Osteoarthritis Research Society International.
The results are "very interesting starting points for future research, because of course, this was an explorative study," she added. Indeed, is still not known whether the comorbidities found share the same risk factors as OA, or if they have a causal effect and add to development of osteoarthritis.
Comorbidity and OA
One of the issues in managing osteoarthritis so far is that it's often addressed as one disease, commented Andrea Dell'isola, PT, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher from Lund University who was not involved in the study.
"All of the treatments that have been developed and the treatment process are tailored to take care of one single disease," he explained.
