Hip and Knee Osteoarthritis Likely in Overweight Men

by Ryan Halvorson

Making News:

Do your overweight or obese male clients need a bit of extra motivation to return to the gym on a daily basis? Explain that regular exercise and weight loss may help them avoid a visit to the surgeon. A study published online ahead of print in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (2008; doi:10.1136/ard.2007.086868) has drawn a parallel between overweight and obese males and total-replacement hip and knee surgeries.

Researchers compared the body mass indexes (BMI) of 1,473 people who had undergone surgery against those of 1,103 people who were surgery free. The results indicated that overweight men were more likely than normal weight men to have had total joint replacement surgery due to osteoarthritis. Obese men had a 70% greater likelihood of having total hip replacements compared with normal-weight men. There was no significant difference in incidence of hip replacement surgery between overweight women and normal-weight women. Overweight and obese men and women underwent more total knee replacement surgeries than the normal-weight controls.

“The study supports a positive association between high BMI and total knee replacement in both sexes, but for total hip replacement the association with BMI seems to be weaker, and possibly negligible for women,” stated the study authors.