African Americans More Likely to Have Multiple, Large-joint Osteoarthritis

African Americans are more likely than Caucasians to suffer from multiple, large-joint osteoarthritis (OA) as well as to have knee OA, but less likely to have hand OA, a new study finds. The results of the study were published in Arthritis & Rheumatism late last month.

Earlier studies have looked at radiographic or symptomatic OA patterns using combinations of joint sites, but these have generally been limited to Caucasian women. In the current study, researchers looked at radiographic data for the hands, knee (tibofemoral and patellofemoral joints), hips, and spine in African American and Caucasian men and women aged 45 and older.

After taking into account age, gender, and body mass index (BMI), the researchers found that African Americans had significantly less frequent OA in various parts of the hand compared with Caucasians, but were twice as likely to have knee (tibofemoral) OA and 77% more likely to have knee and spine OA at the same time. The study participants had a mean age of 65 and a mean BMI qualifying them as obese. In all, 62% of participants had spine OA, 42% had knee OA, 36% had hip OA, and 32% had hand OA.

“Racial differences in OA phenotypes were more significant than gender disparity,” said lead study author, Amanda Nelson, MD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill-UNC Rheumatology/Thurston Arthritis Research Center, in a press release. “Our findings suggest a substantial health burden of large-joint OA, particularly hip and spine, among African Americans, and further studies that address this concern are warranted.”