A Weighty Subject: Knee Osteoarthritis Worse in Heavier People
Even a modest weight loss improves the symptoms

That beer belly and those thunder thighs you’re trying to get rid of can translate to more pain in the knees. Severely obese people are more than nine times more likely to have knee pain from osteoarthritis than those who are of normal weight, according to a study of almost 600 people with osteoarthritis.

Researchers used the World Health Organization’s Body Mass Index (BMI) scale to categorize subjects as Pre-Obese, Obese I, Obese II and Obese III. (BMI is calculated as weight divided by height squared and is used for both men and women.) Those in the Obese I category were twice as likely to have knee pain. The risks increased to four times for Obese II people and to 9.2 for Obese III subjects.  A BMI of 30 or higher is considered obesity by the National Institutes of Health.

“We found that even losing a small amount of weight—10 pounds or so—can improve knee pain from osteoarthritis,” said Frances Vaughn Wilder, PhD, the study’s lead researcher and the executive director of the Arthritis Research Institute of America (ARIA). “We can’t modify the height part of the BMI equation, but even a modest weight reduction can help aching knees feel better.”

Osteoarthritis, which is the “wear and tear” form of arthritis, affects 27 million Americans after the age of 50. The study that correlates the effects of obesity in the peer-reviewed journal Musculoskeletal Disorders. With Dr. Wilder, the paper’s second author was Matthew W. Rogers, a doctoral candidate who is also ARIA’s director of exercise.

Since 1988, the Arthritis Research Institute of America (ARIA) has been studying thousands of participants to learn more about osteoarthritis.  The 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit research organization is based in Clearwater, FL, but its findings have been published worldwide.  ARIA’s x-ray database is globally acknowledged as one of the most complete sources of information about the progression of osteoarthritis. For information, call (727) 461-4054.


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