BMI Associated With Hand Osteoarthritis

HealthDay News — Increased body mass index (BMI) may have a moderate effect on hand arthritis, according to a meta-analysis published recently in the International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases.

Liying Jiang, from Nantong University in China, and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis of all articles that quantitatively assessed the strength of associations between BMI and the risk of hand osteoarthritis. Twenty-one studies were included: 13 cross-sectional, 3 case-control, and 5 cohort.

The researchers found that the pooled summary estimates were 1.10 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.98-1.24), with the difference nonsignificant (P =.09). In cross-sectional studies, BMI was positively associated with hand osteoarthritis (1.05;% CI, 1.02-1.08); no significant difference was seen in case-control studies (1.28; 95% CI, 0.87-1.88) or cohort studies (1.06; 95% CI, 0.71-1.58). 

There was a weak but significant effect on the risk of radiographic hand osteoarthritis, with summary estimates of 1.06 (95% CI, 1.02-1.10) in studies defined by radiography and 1.25 (95% CI, 1.06-1.49) in studies defined radiographically and clinically.

“It appears that increased BMI contributes to a positively moderate effect on susceptibility to hand osteoarthritis, as defined radiographically and/or radiographically and clinically,” the researchers wrote.

Reference

1. Jiang L, Xie X, Wang Y, et al. Body mass index and hand osteoarthritis susceptibility: an updated meta-analysis. Int J Rheum Dis. 2016 Nov 5. doi:10.1111/1756-185X.12895 [Epub ahead of print].