Osteoarthritis (OA) can nearly triple a person’s risk of developing many other chronic illnesses as they age Overall, people with OA tend to develop many other health problems This might be due to a lack of physical activity, poor diet and chronic inflammation, researchers said WEDNESDAY, July 10, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Osteoarthritis could nearly triple a person’s risk of developing a multitude of other chronic illnesses, a new two-decade study finds. People with osteoarthritis (OA) -- where cartilage breaks down, allowing bones to rub against each other -- tend to develop multiple other health problems as the years progress, researchers found. These other chronic illnesses can include heart disease, diabetes, mood disorders, cancer and diseases of the kidneys, liver, lungs and other organs, according to a report published recently in the journal RMD Open .
“Our findings suggest that individuals with OA face an almost threefold higher risk of developing severe multimorbidity,” concluded the research team led by Andrea Dell’isola , an associate professor at Lund University in Sweden. For the study, researchers analyzed medical data for nearly 10,000 residents from the Skane region in the south of Sweden diagnosed with osteoarthritis between 2008 and 2009. Each of these OA patients was matched with two people of the same age and sex without osteoarthritis, so their health patterns could be tracked and compared.
Researchers found that people who were likely to becom.