Source: Diabetes  |  Posted 9 years ago

Low birth weight and high adult weight are associated with increased risk of hand osteoarthritis in men, according to a recent British study.

The relationship between obesity and knee osteoarthritis is well established and is most likely due to increased mechanical load on knee joints. However, such stress is not present on hand joints in obese individuals despite a prevailing risk for hand osteoarthritis.

The explanation for how obesity is related to osteoarthritis could, instead, lie in early development. Obesity-associated effects on metabolism, such as impaired glucose tolerance, have also been implicated in osteoarthritis. This particular metabolic defect has been observed in patients who had low birth weight. However, the relationship between hand osteoarthritis and body weight in early life has yet to be investigated.

A. Aihie Sayer, PhD, and colleagues at the University of Southampton and the Royal Free and University College, United Kingdom, prospectively analysed birth weight, childhood growth, adult weight, and hand osteoarthritis in almost 3,000 participants who were born in 1946. Main outcome was measured at the age of 53 years.

Nineteen percent of men and 30% of women had osteoarthritis in at least 1 hand joint as measured through clinical examination.

Further analysis indicated that low birth weight and high adult weight were independently associated with hand osteoarthritis in men. This relationship, however, was not observed in women. In addition, childhood weight and grip strength were not related to hand osteoarthritis in men or women.

These results show that men who had a low birth weight and were heavy at age 53 have the highest risk of osteoarthritis within the male population.

Dr. Sayer proposes that this new finding "may reflect the persisting influence of prenatal environmental factors on adult joint structure and function."