High Comorbidity Rate Seen Before Osteoarthritis Diagnosis
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More than 40 medical conditions were positively associated with having a new diagnosis of osteoarthritis according to research presented at the OARSI 2022 World Congress. The results are very interesting starting points for future research, because of course, this was an explorative study.
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@pinaki One of the issues in managing osteoarthritis so far is that it's often addressed as one disease, commented Andrea Dell'isola, PT, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher from Lund University who was not involved in the study. All of the treatments that have been developed and the treatment process are tailored to take care of one single disease. However, when we look at the characteristics of people with osteoarthritis, we see that roughly 70% of them have other conditions on top of their joint disease. This high comorbidity rate is significantly higher than in healthy people of the same age and sex, he added. So, this means that either there is something linked to osteoarthritis that makes people frailer and more likely to develop other diseases, or there may be links between these other diseases, that we often call comorbidities, and osteoarthritis.