UNDERSTANDING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BODY-WEIGHT AND OSTEOARTHRITIS

Overweight people are at high risk of developing knee osteoarthritis ( OA) and may also be at increased risk of hand and hip OA. Furthermore, being overweight accelerates disease progression in knee OA. While th e increased joint stress accompanying obesity may explain the strong l inkage between obesity and knee OA risk, it does not necessarily expla in why obese people have a high risk of disease in the hand nor why ob ese women are at higher comparative risk of knee disease than obese me n. Unfortunately, studies of metabolic factors linked to obesity have not provided an explanation for these findings. There are a paucity of data on weight loss as a treatment for OA, but preliminary informatio n suggests it is especially effective in knee disease and that even sm all amounts of weight reduction may have favourable effects.