Citation

Barbour KE, Sagawa N, Boudreau RM, Winger ME, Cauley JA, Nevitt MC, Fujii T, Patel KV, Strotmeyer ES. Arthritis Care Res. (2010) 2019; 71(7): 865-874.

Affiliation

Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/acr.23725

PMID

30133173

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The risk of falls among adults with knee osteoarthritis (OA) has been documented, yet, to our knowledge no studies have examined knee OA and medically treated injurious falls (hereafter injurious falls) (overall and by sex), an outcome of substantial clinical and public health relevance.

METHODS: Using data from the Health ABC Knee Osteoarthritis Substudy, a community-based study of white and black older adults, we tested associations between knee OA status and the risk of injurious falls among 734 participants with a mean (SD) age of 74.7 (2.9) years. Knee radiographic osteoarthritis (ROA) was defined as having a Kellgren-Lawrence grade of ≥2 in at least one knee. Knee symptomatic ROA (sROA) was defined as having both ROA and pain symptoms in the same knee. Injurious falls were defined using a validated diagnoses code algorithm from linked Medicare Fee-for-Service claims. Cox regression modeling was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

RESULTS: The mean (SD) follow-up time was 6.59 (3.12) years. Of the 734 participants, 255 (34.7%) had an incident injurious fall over the entire study period. In the multivariate model, compared with those without ROA or pain, individuals with sROA (HR=1.09; 95% CI: 0.73, 1.65) did not have a significantly increased risk of injurious falls. Compared with men without ROA or pain, men with sROA (HR=2.57; 95% CI: 1.12, 5.91) had a significantly higher risk of injurious falls. No associations were found for women or by injurious fall type.

CONCLUSION: Knee sROA was independently associated with an increased risk of injurious falls in older men, but not in older women. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

incidence; injurious falls; pain; radiographic and symptomatic knee osteoarthritis